33 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-19-16”

  4. Karen, two things Dave Ramsey recommends when wrestling with the option of a new job are 1) ask for the names of some previous employees and call them for a chat and 2) take a day off from the current job and shadow an existing employee (during which time you can also chat and find out what it’s really like working there). Hope this is helpful!

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  7. Good morning, and good all around!
    I thought it must be a bluebird, but without seeing the peachy chest I was not sure.

    I’m getting the message from Miss Bosley that the food bowl and coffee pot need to be filled.

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  9. Ha! Linda, it was half empty, LOL. Usually it is near empty, and I toss the remains outside so she gets a new round of fresh from the bag stale dry cat food.

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  10. AJ, yep, I love that site.

    I knew today’s bird, by the way, because a couple of years ago we had our annual church picnic at the house of a family who lives in the country (that’s how our small church always does our Memorial Day picnic), and they had purple martin houses. I saw birds flying in and out, just assumed they were purple martins, and took photos. (I have no photos of purple martins.) The flying shots were from a good distance, no close-ups, but then one landed on the wire near the house and I got some close-ups. When I got home I looked at the photo, looked up purple martins, and went “Hey! That’s something else.” (I still haven’t gotten any photos of purple martins, except for one bird among a mixed group of swallows last fall at our favorite state park. They were too far away, with poor lighting, to identify exactly what birds they are, except that one is definitely a purple martin.)

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  12. Love the cute bird-in-a-birdhouse pic 🙂 Sweet.

    Speaking of wildlife, I spotted a coyote across the street from us while walking my dog last night, about 3 blocks from my house. eek. He trotted to the corner and cut over diagonally heading south — we promptly headed north. He didn’t seem to be paying attention to us, but I’m thinking he was well aware of our presence.

    The urban coyote population seems to be exploding, they’re reported as being seen in every part of our town now. 😦 Someone yesterday also posted a picture of a coyote, probably 6-10 blocks from us, with a dead cat in its mouth, trotting down a sidewalk. 😦 Annie may be looking at a further clamp-down on her outdoor time pretty soon.

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  14. From an NPR article: All over America, coyote populations have exploded. The wily Western predators have spread east and can be spotted in New York, Detroit, Atlanta and other cities.

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  16. Just got the sheep pen set up. Husband and smallest two are off to bring home the sheep. Yesterday they brought home the two piglets. Son named them Pork and Ham. Wonder what he was thinking? After the sheep are settled in, they will move in with the goats, probably to eat down the grass. Goats are more into weeds. As the pigs get larger and understand electric fence, they will move under the willows.

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  17. Not if they’re alone, mumsee, but I’ve heard of coyotes “packing” to take down larger dogs — but two on a leash, with the coyote by himself, nah, too much work. .. A cat is just easier and faster.

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  18. Yep, they can take down deer as a pack so I am sure a dog would not be that big of a deal. But so far, there is a plethora of cats and small dogs, not to mention dog and cat food and trash, so no need to reinforce each other.

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  21. Interesting article, Cheryl. Once when we went to the emergency room we had to answer questions about resuscitation for Art. We were asked did we want it even if it meant breaking Art’s ribs. I gave a hesitant, “Yes.” It’s not like one wants to jump enthusiastically to answer yes to breaking the spouse’s ribs. The questioning felt uncomfortable and sobering.

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  22. Just caught up on a couple days of comments, so here are a few that are kind of late. . .

    We have very basic cable, along with Netflix (DVDs & streaming), but will be cancelling cable soon. For over 20 years, due to Lee having to leave for work in the wee hours of the morning in his past few jobs, I have recorded our shows (first on a VCR, later on a DVD recorder/player), & we watch them at a time convenient to us. (I record my own shows, too, so I don’t disturb Lee with the TV on in the evening.) But two developments have prompted us to decide to cancel the cable.

    One thing is that our cable provider has gone back to having to have a cable box (this time it is a “mini box”) rather than being directly connected to the TV, which means I can’t program the DVD recorder to switch channels, & one cannot watch something on one channel while recording something on another channel (which seems like a technological regression).

    The other thing is that our DVD recorder/player is getting old, but that is an old technology that is being phased out. Many people have the DVR function through their cable provider, but that is an expensive option.

    So. . .since so much can be watched online these days (all the major network shows seem to be available online), we decided we’ll just watch our shows online (but goodbye to fast-forwarding through commercials), using an HDMI cord to connect my laptop to the TV so we can still watch together. (Then we found out that the HDMI cord does not include the audio, so we have to look into getting some kind of speakers. 😦 )

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  23. When I graduated from high school, it was very important to me that my brother (my only sibling) be there. He lived in Ohio (where we used to live), while we were in Wisconsin at the time. We had no other family in the area. (We moved back to Connecticut the following year, & Brother followed several months later.)

    Brother promised to come, & told us of his plans. But he never showed up. The next day he called with some excuse.

    More than a year later, we were told by Brother’s then-girlfriend that he had purposely missed the graduation, to hurt me. He has resented me since I was a baby.

    You may recall that this is the brother who has cut off any relationship with me since shortly after our mom died.

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  24. Linda – Thanks for sharing that advice. That’s something for us to keep in mind if we have another tough decision to make.

    But Lee is at peace with the decision he made to stay with his current job. A big factor in that was that it would be an hour to the depot, then an hour to the town where the route was, & of course, an hour back to the depot, & another hour back home. And there would have been the several-hour-long route in between, along with the work that has to be done at the depot.

    We are praying & believing that God has something closer to home for him.

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  26. Update- I had my phone interview today. I don’t think it went as well as I hoped. They asked a question or two that I wasn’t sure how to answer. And I wasn’t sure what questions to ask them. We’ll see.

    Anyway, now I can get ready for a wedding Saturday. If I don’t post Friday funnies tomorrow, I hope Chas will understand.

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  27. Coyotes are plentiful in these parts…Paul took Lulah out at 3AM…yes we have been awake that long….he said there was a pack of coyotes out on the back part of our property (did I mention the neighbors who live behind us feed the deer, complete with a feeding trough) We don’t let the dogs run when we hear a pack of them about….

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  28. Janice,

    The last few pics you sent me didn’t come thru correctly. I have half of what looks like a beautiful shot from Art’s hospital room, but the other half is a gray bar. Could you maybe resend them to my other email and I’ll see if that’s any better.

    allenjacks @ verizon.net

    No spaces.

    Thanks

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  29. We have coyotes out here in Connecticut, too. Donna even posted on Facebook an article about a coyote attacking a pet in its backyard in a town not far from here. (Do I have the details right, Donna? Was the pet killed? I don’t remember.) And there’s been another similar case in the news in the past few days.

    My neighbor once shot a coyote that was getting too close to their horses.

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  30. Karen, I can’t remember all the details of that story either. The coyotes in the northeast are bigger than ours since they’ve apparently become mixed somewhat with wolves.

    LA County apparently is doing some trapping to the west of us now.

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  31. No easy answer to their population boom, apparently. They aren’t easy to trap and I doubt the authorities will allow us to start shooting them in our neighborhoods. But it seems like some kind of management options deserve some study.

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  32. Predator species have strong advocates in the environmental field, however; and we all enjoy seeing wolves and others rebound. But there has to be a common-sense approach (rather than an all-or-nothing reaction).

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