45 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-30-16”

  2. Good Night Ann.
    Morning all.
    Got my new ministry budget done with the help of some chocolate.
    Also did a brief course on intellectual property rights, that was hard to get to properly work on my computer. I missed two questions because I had to guess when the information did not show on my screen.

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  5. Good Morning Everyone.
    I posted a link to a property yesterday. It is even better in real life. The video doesn’t do it justice. It is listed for 1.6 million. There is an old story that if everyone sitting in a circle could put their problems in a pile and pick out another to have everyone would pick their own problems back. Why is the gentleman selling his home of 14 yrs that he and his wife designed and filled with antiques? Because she is 65 years old and has been placed in a nursing home with early onset dementia. They have been married 45 years–barely out of their teens when they married in January of 1971.
    In talking to him, I told him of another woman I knew of who died at age 50 something from early onset dementia. What the doctors told her family was they thought drinking diet Coke in a can contributed to it. He said his wife drank gallons of the stuff. The upstairs attic “hobby” room looks like his wife was just there yesterday. He so enjoyed taking another agent and me around the house and telling us the stories of the antiques and where they found them and the special details they built into the house.
    He seems to be a nice man, a young 65 (or perhaps it is my new perspective?). He has moved out of the house and into a 1,300SF townhouse in a city near by to be closer to his wife.
    The cautionary tale? STOP drinking diet sodas! If you are going to drink a soda drink one with REAL sugar and don’t drink it often. That, and all the money in the world means nothing when you lose the love of your life to a dreaded disease.

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  6. Good morning. I have been up for hours since I went to bed early two nights in a row. This could be habit forming.

    Kim, that is really sad.

    I am about ready to boycott Coca Cola considering that they’ve been in on pushing the governor’s veto on our Religious Liberty. Delta Airlines, too. Our liberty has been traded for bucks on the governor’s desk.

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  7. I have one silly little document to find or obtain so Art can finish our taxes. Is anyone else there with me?

    In the big scheme of things, it probably will only make a penny difference, but it is required. I still like that post card approach to doing taxes. That would give us good reason to focus on the bookkeeping and accounting and forget the stressful tax side of the business.

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  8. Funniest thing I have seen so far this morning is a photo of our charming governor with the caption “You don’t have to be lonely at GovernorsOnly.com
    I don’t know if the rest of you have seen the commercials for Farmer’s Only but here is the catchy little tune so you can sing it for yourself the rest of the day.

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  9. The birds at top were photographed the same day as the red-winged blackbird, muskrat, and eye of frog (not newt). I’m sure you’ve seen better photos of flying bald eagles, but this is the best one I have taken. It was flying a great enough distance away that it could not be identified by color with the naked eye; I had to zoom in to verify what species it was (though its shape gives it away in this shot at least). I’m going to guess it’s a four-year-old eagle (first year in adult plumage), since its coloring seems just a little mottled still. That means it will likely be the year it takes a mate, if it hasn’t already done so. (I believe they pair up over winter, but I don’t remember for sure.) But this one at one point had a juvenile flying around it, and it didn’t chase it away . . . which would suggest it hasn’t yet claimed a mate and/or the territory it was flying in, but was considering the other bird as a mate. Eagles in juvenile plumage can breed–they just don’t usually get a chance; they aren’t as good a choice as a mate, since they’re still learning how to be an eagle, and they aren’t as likely to be successful in nesting. Eagle nesting success rates are pretty low anyway. A lot of young don’t survive their first flight, and many more don’t survive their first winter. If this one hasn’t found a mate yet, it should at least do so some time this year. Later we saw it (or another eagle) land in a tree, though conditions weren’t right to get a very good photo (windy, and again a distant shot, though closer than this one).

    The other birds are a pair of mute swans. Mute swans are not native to the U.S. They were brought over as pond birds. But they’re huge and fairly aggressive birds, and I’m guessing that owners aren’t always good at keeping their wings clipped to keep them local. At any rate, quite a few have escaped into the wild and bred, and this is a wild pair. I’ve also photographed a wild pair at our favorite local state park a couple of times (in other words, likely more than one pair). The swans were sharing this pond with a pair of Canada geese (and, I saw later in the photos, a single Mallard). Most of the time they weren’t swimming close enough together to get both in the same shot, and even when they were together, one might have its head and neck in the water searching for food. But finally, when they were right across from me in a good spot, both were in the frame and both had their heads out of water long enough for three shots. In all of them, the rear bird has its current pose. In one shot the front bird has the same pose as the rear one, in one shot it has its neck curved down, and in this one it’s facing the camera. I like how well the outlines of their beaks can be seen–these are the clearest shots I’ve gotten of this species. The water wasn’t calm enough to get much in the way of reflections, but it was “open” enough that I watched them glide and was amazed that you don’t see any leg action at all, just a glide.

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  10. I drank one diet coke a day for about 15 years and quit cold turkey in 2008. Other than the occasional ginger ale, I haven’t had a soda since. Am I still going to die of dementia?

    Now I drink iced tea or coffee–stayed away for coffee for about 55 years, but succumbed a couple years ago.

    What does that mean?

    Favorite all time drink is water. I thank God all the time for refreshing water THAT HAS NO CALORIES!

    Writing day. Finally!

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  12. Janice, I am with you. I like things done in a timely manner. My husband tends to procrastinate. I would have liked to have everything done with our taxes before we went to visit our daughter for a few weeks. We do have some forms that come very late, but I believe we had all we were going to get. I do not like stuff like this hanging over my head.

    He did run into some issues from some new forms and changes. We will meet with the tax man who probably will know immediately what to do. It is just wrong to have all this mess. The older we get the worse it has become. We just want to do what is right and that should not be so difficult.

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  14. I work with people who file extensions and wait until October you file. They go ahead and send a check on April 15th. They think it makes them less likely to be audited. I go ahead and get it over with as quickly as possible in February as soon as I receive my 1099’s. Why have it hanging over your head? If I owe, I go ahead and pay–same argument,

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  15. Awesome in-flight photo! So graceful …

    Janice, I feel your frustration, I couldn’t find my car registration for my taxes last week — finally had to look it up on my bank statements online since I always pay that electronically. Found the amount there. I’m trying to be more careful this year about putting all that stuff together in a folder as I pay it.

    Just sent in my property tax so that’s IT in terms of my big first-of-the-year payments, a season I dread. From January through April I have to pay my property taxes, homeowners’ insurance & car registration. It’s a financial hit, but once it’s over I get to skate for a few months. 🙂

    My tax guy did confirm what Jo had told me — I can start collecting my full social security at age 66 AND continue working full time with no limit on what I earn. So that’s my plan, assuming I’m healthy enough to keep working and assuming there’s a job still to go to. 🙂

    I’m up early, have done my devotions and am on my 2nd cup of coffee already.

    Yesterday ran late, had to cover a presentation by developers & the city councilman on a new mixed-use building planned for our area and then go to a community gathering to “meet and greet” our new LAPD division captain that didn’t end until 7 p.m. Met a couple people there who knew me only from social media or my bylines so that was kind of fun.

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  16. Something will kill us, that’s what I figure. 🙂 I drink diet coke but not a lot of it, I never have it in the house or drink it when I’m home — I only drink it at work from the machine and not every day (or I’ll buy one and literally nurse it for a few days at my desk). Is diet Dr. Pepper better?

    🙂 🙂

    Meanwhile, they say coffee is good for us. Today they say that, anyway. Tomorrow, pending different tests by different scientists, who knows?

    Hard to keep up.

    Today’s a writing day for me, 3 stories. Ugh.

    I “may” buy a Diet Coke from the machine. Or a diet Dr. Pepper.

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  17. I think it is the aspartame in the diet sodas. That and the reaction with the metal can.

    I have not had diet sodas in YEARS. The first time I drank a diet Coke when aspartame first came out I ended up with a severe headache and felt dizzy.
    From there my joke about diet sodas was that in looking around only fat people drank diet sodas—the skinny people were drinking the regular ones.
    Mr. P buys Coke Zero–I nag. He doesn’t listen.

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  20. I tried a diet soda once. It tasted like metal and it was in a plastic container. No more. I don’t drink water out of plastic containers either if I can help it. I also gave up pop after many years of way too much of it. Water is delicious. I now drink water, black tea, green tea, herbal tea, and a cup of coffee. All of those things are currently good for me. And I eat very well. But I am still about sixty pounds over weight. Has not changed one whit. Maybe I am made to be this way. Maybe I am in denial. I did start losing some last Fall but it all came back when I stopped walking and started indoor exercising.

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  22. Good Morning….I’ve been moving furniture, dusting and vacuuming all morning….I just needed something to be changed…so I’m changing it all!
    Beautiful photo of the eagle….I’ve never seen one close up and personal while in flight…
    No diet soda for us….we keep Ginger Ale around just in case someone has an upset stomach…our well water is the best…and it makes great ice tea too! Of course there is always coffee….that is a must around here.
    Is that advertisement for real? Farmers Only…like Match.com…oh my! We haven’t seen that one advertised around here 🙂 And that home by the way, is beautiful!

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  26. Donna, Here’s something to be aware of – I got quite an IRS shock last week from my tax guy. I continue to work full time but filed for social security last year when I hit my official retirement age. When you do that, you are automatically enrolled in Medicare Part A (hospital). You don’t pay for it and you cannot opt out of it. It turns out that there is this obscure IRS rule that if you are enrolled in Medicare, you cannot have an HSA (high deductible savings account). I do have one through my employer and they contribute $25 a month to it. That is such a stupid rule – our regular medical and our Rx are not covered by Medicare, so I should be able to keep the HSA for those expenses and will now lose that $25/month benefit. I suspect that the law was made so that folks who only have Medicare can’t have an HSA and no provision was made for people like me who aren’t full-blown Medicare and do have a regular high-deductible plan.

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  28. Ouch, that hurts. Though I have often thought I would be much more spiritual if I did, I don’t. And having lived in cultures who thought hurting themselves added to their spirituality, I don’t. But I often stand to pray, and lift up my eyes. I read about that a lot in the Bible.

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  29. As you know in the Anglican/Episcopal church we kneel to pray. I have gotten out of the habit because my church doesn’t have pews with kneelers just chairs linked together. I don’t do it at home either although I feel is it more reverent and respectful. I do a lot of “talking to God” when I am driving.

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  30. I only kneel if there are kneelers in a church (there aren’t at mine). Most of my praying is done lying down in bed, or lounging in the blue recliner. Not to mention walking down the street, driving or even dancing Zumba. Mumsee and crew come up a lot during Zumba.

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  33. My husband and I went to the state park today. It’s definitely early spring here. No late-spring stuff is out yet, but in addition to the daffodils everywhere in town, the early wildflowers are starting. As we started out, I wondered if we were the right week to see spring beauty (a tiny but lovely flower that’s white with pink lines); I’ve actually only seen that once, and didn’t know what I was seeing at the time, and it was only two or three flowers. But since they’re supposed to be about the first to bloom, I thought we might see them. And once I saw that the hepatica were blooming, but just starting to bloom (some plants had open flowers and some had just buds), I actively looked for spring beauty, and sure enough I ended up seeing lots of them.

    We also saw two turtles sunning themselves on a log and reflected in the water, skunk cabbage, more sandhill cranes, a swan at a distance, a pair of mallards, and some bluebirds. We heard lots and lots of frogs, but couldn’t see any no matter where we looked. (We took a trail that goes by many little ponds and boggy areas.) We heard more sandhill cranes than we saw, but we did see a pair. Also lots of red-winged blackbirds, a swallow, several chickadees, robins, and a red-headed woodpecker.

    I saw, but couldn’t photograph, a mourning cloak butterfly. They are really beautiful little things, but I have yet to get even a decent photo, because I see them flitting by and they’re gone. I did get a very good view today, but one can only photograph a butterfly in the air if one knows where it will land. (If it’s heading for a flower, or leaving a flower, you MAY be able to get a photo. Just flitting by? Not a chance.)

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  34. I have at times kneeled to pray. My knees have some troubles so I don’t kneel too often. My knee caps tend to want to slip out of place if I put too much pressure on them. In my husband’s church we use to kneel once a month to take communion. I tend to pray at different times and places as needs arise. I just had a text from son asking for prayer as he decides which classes to take. My friend, Karen, called earlier and was very anxious so I told her about breath prayer and the one I say, so I was praying then. I pray, as you know, on the internet wherever I may be. I’ve sorta been saying prayers when wondering about the neighbor who went to the hospital. There are always so many things to pray about. I could spend 24/7 in prayer if I could stay awake.

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  36. Just had a small earthquake. I heard a little rattling and then saw my water bottle shaking, which continued for a few moments.
    Sprite zero made me violently ill a couple of year ago. I stay away from sodas. Love Bundaberg ginger beer or lemon lime bitters for a treat every month or so. Mostly water.
    I can wait on medicare until I return to the states fulltime. I’ll just have to keep working and praising God for good health.
    My hip hurts this morning. I have been doing a lot of walking this week up and down these hills on dirt, rocky roads.

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  37. I kneeled in Episcopal churches at various times growing up and when visiting some Catholic Churches with friends….But haven’t in a long time.

    I was in a small wreck the other day. No one was hurt and it was my fault…anyway, got the estimate for repairs to body…it’s amazing to me how expensive car repair is! Insurance covers everything after our deductible, fortunately.

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  41. I grew up kneeling to pray, but seldom do it anymore. I prayed with my children while they were lying in their beds. I sat on the edge of the bed and do they same with grandchildren. When I was a child, kneeling at the side of the bed was normal. I suspect we may have a more ‘familiar’ view of God these days.

    We kneel at a communion rail for that, however. Otherwise no kneelers in our church. My grandchildren find the kneelers quite interesting when they were in the Catholic church for a funeral. My granddaughter also found it odd when the girl assisting the priest (altar girls!) held the huge bible up for him. My granddaughter asked why the guy couldn’t hold his own book? Good question. 😉

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  45. It is painful for me to kneel since my last knee surgery caused a spur. I pray everywhere.

    What is this beautiful spring weather yall speak of? We have wind, wind, and more wind, followed by fires.

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