37 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-5-16”

  2. I spent Sunday and Monday afternoons down at the Cottage. It was where the photo of Michelle and me was taken by yet another stranger I started talking to.
    The Grand Hotel always does their fireworks on July 3rd. We watched them from the little deck out on the sand. Everyone just shows up on holiday weekends and bring food. Some stay the night. Some do not. I came home each night. The cottage is “on the boardwalk” which makes it a higher dollar piece of real estate but we like to add some real class with the blow up kiddie pool. I made chicken salad and potato salad. We had BBQ,hamburgers, hotdoga

    hips, salad, twice baked potatoes. Pretty much way more food than we needed. It was good to be with people and laugh.
    BG and I had lunch together on Sunday. She had to work on the holiday weekend. She seems to be doing well.

    Liked by 7 people

    Reply

  8. Wow! Kim, that sounds so nice. I think you have occasions to feel the highs and lows of life frequently. It’s great to see another meetup, all the smiles warm my heart.

    Yesterday I heard the tree people wanted to do their work today. We went by their office and picked up paperwork yesterday. They rescheduled for tomorrow. I looked at the insurance paper they gave me which shows no worker’s comp coverage. Now I need to research to find out if that is okay or not.

    I have scheduled day and possible overnight boarding for Miss Bosley so she won’t be crazified by all the commotion. She needs an annual checkup so the vet can give her anti-anxiety medicine to put Revolution on her and do the check up.

    I finally received my Inspire Bible which has the areas off to the side of the text with Bible verses for coloring. I will enjoy that to help with memorization.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Well, technically Kim sent the second photo, the one with the Southern belle and the sometime-southerner with flyaway hair. It was a lovely restaurant, with a good view and excellent food, but especially with a good friend to talk with and show me around. My husband would have joined us, except he ended up spending pretty much the whole day in bed sick, and he had a meeting that started Monday morning. (He ended up missing a few hours of sessions here and there, and at one point wasn’t at all sure we’d end up going to Florida after the business part was over, but he got on antibiotics and was feeling a bit better by the end.)

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  12. Good Morning…ah the Smokies…how I love those mountains! Beautiful ladies…so glad to know ya’ll got to meet up…..
    Chas I must say I teared up reading your post yesterday….and I pondered your words throughout the day as we joined a gathering of our dearest friends for a celebration. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us….we needed to hear them.. ❤

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  13. Janice, most homeowners insurance policies include something called “incidental workers comp” that covers folks doing one-time, ad hoc work at your house. You could check on that.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. Beautiful photos 🙂

    The big and very loud fireworks show at the beach went from about 9-9:30. We survived. But that was the least of it.

    We had illegal fireworks going on until 11 p.m., it is always so annoying but no stopping it. The town blows up into a virtual war zone every 4th of July (fireworks are “illegal” haha in the city of LA) and the police can really do little about it as it’s so widespread. The dogs pant and drool and stress, staring at me all the time like I can do something to stop it. Sorry guys. 😦

    Lawlessness, really, though I know it seems like maybe a frivolous issue to most. But when I was growing up I can’t imagine there would that many people in a town just flagrantly violating a city law like that. And so many of these “fireworks” are huge, M-80 types, they make a terrible racket that reverberates from the waterfront up the hill, sometimes setting off car alarms they’re so loud.

    Annie’s least favorite were the whistling fireworks. Those were the ones that made her fly.

    But it’s back to normal for me today, too — work, work, work.

    I got a lot of things done around the house yesterday, have a couple bags of clothes to donate to the Salvation Army, one bag of tattered rags to toss into the trash and a bag of e-waste to deliver to the collection site in town on Saturday.

    This week I’ll need to deal with getting a permit for the roof & also get the Jeep in for a long-overdue maintenance.

    Like

    Reply

  15. We found a rare spot that doesn’t give us cell phone reception. It led to my husband and I enjoying a parade with two extra empty chairs, while my daughter, her husband and four children plus a cousin enjoyed the parade on the other end of a small town. I was sorely disappointed. We did connect by phone as we were leaving town. She was actually staying at her in-laws and we did meet up for dinner on Saturday night. Nevertheless, I sure missed seeing the grands at the parade.

    I had to laugh when a visitor from the large urban area of Minnesota ask me where in the world all the people came from! There was probably far more in town then the population. The population swells in the summer because of all the cabins and campgrounds etc. Summer in Minnesota is lovely.

    Except for the mosquitos! Those remind us that we would not want to live in THIS world forever without it being redeemed.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  16. I watched “13 Hours” last night (see yesterday’s weekend political thread) which, for me, echoed the lament that Chas posted earlier yesterday. (Despite the bravery and courage and American spirit of those guys who refused to sit by and do nothing while it all unfolded.) Sad.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  18. On the prayer thread, Michelle mentioned that her daughter’s EMT job (which is a very important, life-saving job) does not pay a living wage.

    That reminds me of something I have wondered about. It used to be that men could provide for their families working jobs that today don’t pay enough to support a family on. (And often those jobs can’t even support a living-on-his-own single very well, or at all). Could it be that as it became the norm for women to work outside the home, companies cut back on wages (or merely didn’t keep them up with inflation), presuming upon the two-income family norm? I know there are still some jobs that pay well, but they are not the norm anymore, at least, not that I can see.

    Like

    Reply

  19. It’s darkened outside so we may get needed rain. Miss Bosley is curled up in a purr ball position on me for afternoon nap, at least while I am on the phone.

    I called and told the tree folks on a message that we want to wait until we can get more info. Better to be safe than sorry. I used these people several years ago and I think they had worker’s comp back then. Also, the neighbors who I don’t know are out of town and they have a car parked on the edge of their property right in the path the workers would be traveling with big chunks of wood. I need to talk with them first (if I go by the golden rule).

    Like

    Reply

  20. My friend R was coming through, so I met her and my goddaughter at the Waffle House for a cup of coffee. The last time we saw each other was almost 4 years ago. She wasn’t sure about my hair.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  21. Karen, I think it’s likely that jobs assume two paychecks (or more) per household, where they used to assume one. I don’t think it’s a net gain for employees, and it’s a real hardship on families that choose to have only one worker. When I was twenty, hadn’t yet gone to college, I had a full-time job at a drugstore. It made $4.00 an hour, which was 20% more than minimum wage. It had regular hours (10-6:30 M-F, except for Wednesday when I preferred the 9-5:30 shift and usually got it), health insurance, paid holidays and sick days, and an employee discount. Four bucks wasn’t enough to support a family, but I could have gone into management, and it was a dependable job. Now I suspect the same job would be part-time without benefits, and would likely start at minimum wage and not 20% above. Plus, for many people such a job wouldn’t be a wife working a second job after her kids were grown or a student working there before going off to college (which was most of our employees then). It wasn’t expected to be a career job at that point in history, in other words; our husbands and fathers had the career jobs that supported the families with young kids.

    Also, a wife who does choose to stay home with kids no longer has a network of other wives doing so. She’s unlikely to have next-door neighbors who are home during the day (unless they’re retired), and middle-aged women who could come alongside helping her are definitely going to be working full-time jobs, even if they took a few years off when the children were little. (I’d be inclined to think that a wife who doesn’t yet have any children, or whose children are grown, can work part-time, or do a home-based business, but a full-time job is taking her out of the home and the community when she is still needed both places, so I personally don’t even like to see women in those categories work full-time. I don’t think it’s a moral issue, but is something that I think is better, that she won’t work full-time if she doesn’t have to.)

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  22. Or it could be that people want more stuff than they used to and think more stuff is necessary. I know we have a lot more stuff than my parents did. And our house is a lot bigger.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  23. Also, with the idea that a home is an investment came the idea that home values will inflate and that two workers would be willing to work and put a good part of their income toward a mortgage for 30 years or more. And we think that a lot of things our parents never dreamed of are necessities. But a family that wants to take a single income and buy a home that will be paid off in 15 years is going to have a hard time of it, with fewer and fewer jobs that make the kinds of wages required for that, even in a modest home. And many of the jobs that do pay more aren’t all that family friendly.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  24. Mumsee, you also have a lot more kids than your parents did!

    But my husband and I have a home that’s at least 50% larger than the one I lived in growing up, and it feels small with two adult daughters living here. Yet we had as many as six children in it when I was growing up. (Only briefly were there six of us, and my memories don’t extend back to when my second brother still lived at home, but we did have two teenagers, one pre-teen, and three preschool-age children at the same time in a home smaller than this one, with the same three bedrooms we have here.)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  25. And now women have to plan for their own retirement. If I woman takes any time off to stay home she loses on the retirement end. With it taking almost every dime to live there is little left over for retirement savings. I my case we were able to buy this house which is 800 SF larger for $100 LESS per month than the rental house we were in. I say this knowing that I work in real estate, but there really is no reason for home prices and rents to be as high as they are.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  26. Kim, how is that one different than it used to be? Are you assuming a husband used to retire with a pension, or what? (My dad didn’t have a pension; my mom lived off his social security, and I think that and life insurance are still an option for wives of working husbands, or frugal ones anyway, assuming the mortgage has been paid off before retirement and all of that.) I’m not an expert on this one, and I’m not sure what you see to have changed. We do see more and more “post-retirement age” people in the workforce, often at minimum-wage jobs like cleaning the dining room at McDonald’s.

    Like

    Reply

  27. Because they can’t live off of what they saved for retirement.
    Now, the way Medicare is set up a spouse goes into a nursing home and the other spouse is left with almost nothing.

    Like

    Reply

  28. Karen @ 11:28
    Back then, essential living expenses didn’t include TV and internet charges. We didn’t have a phone until 1942. They didn’t include Starbucks, smartphones and other essentials of these times.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  31. Another factor might be that businesses and corporations, especially those in the housing industry, realize there is more money to be spent so they raise prices. Mrs L and I have always lived on one income, plus some part-time for me, but have never lacked true essentials: food, clothing and shelter.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  32. I don’t remember the exact figures, but a while back I saw something that showed that whatever minimum wage was in the 60s paid for a lot more than what today’s minimum wage pays for. So I’m guessing it is a combination of wages not keeping up with inflation, & even more inflation of the cost of goods. As mentioned, our “needs” these days are more than what they used to be. Also, things such as appliances don’t last nearly as long as they used to.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  33. You got that right, Karen, about things not lasting as long. The built in obsolescence is a major cost because even if you don’the care to upgrade, often you are forced to do so because of lack or repair parts or support services. And all the regulations now up the cost of everything. For example, in the tax business, new requirements meant Art had to invest in a scanner system or make copies of all things claimed on returns and keep on file whereas it use to be tax payers took their records home and that part was not the preparer’s responsibility to keep up with.

    Like

    Reply

  34. Some of it can be traced to the education system, even to the GI Bill. It used to the be that not everyone was expected to go to college. Not everyone was expected to graduate from high school. There were jobs that a man could support a family on. Mechanics, plumbers, etc. that did not require a college degree or a high school diploma—just a skill
    Now every parent dreams of their child going to college. You have a college diploma you should definitely make above min wage and so it spirals. My niece graduated from Auburn with a degree in audiology. They encouraged her to do so. Audiologists make good money. Guess what? Now you can’t get a job in that field without a Master’s Degree because are so many college graduates with audiology degrees. A college degree these days is worth less than a high school diploma was when a lot of you perhaps even me graduated from high school. But because you have that degree you should earn more….

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  36. Some of it is a matter of what society values. My just-graduated-from-high school niece makes almost as much as a barista as my daughter does after a year on the job (and she complains she’s not paid enough). My niece makes coffee. My daughter saves lives.

    A little unsettling.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  37. What could be bought by minimum wage in decades past isn’t really a good indicator. “Minimum-wage job” used to mean a job held by a teenager just getting started in the workplace or maybe a mom who wanted to work a few hours a week while her kids were in school but whose husband provided most of the family support. Now it’s standard starting pay in many jobs, no matter the age or needs of the employee. As I pointed out, as recently as 1987-89 my “entry-level job” (my first full-time job after working at McDonald’s for a year or so) landed me 20% more than minimum wage, plus full benefits, and I was 20 without any college. Now kids in their 20s and 30s with college degrees are often struggling to get anything that’s full-time, anything with predictable hours, anything that pays more than minimum wage, and anything that has benefits. Some of them have huge debts from college and master’s degrees. Many of them are not good employees, so workplaces are taking huge gambles to hire them in the first place, and some would rather not.

    In that same time period, when I was 20, a roommate took a training course (a few weeks, I think, and I don’t know whether she paid for it or her new job did) to become a bank teller, making $10 an hour. Remember minimum wage was $3.35, and I was earning $4.00/ hour. That was, in other words, excellent pay for what is now (I’m pretty sure) a minimum-wage job or close to it. In actual dollars, it pays less now than it did then, let alone in earning power!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a reply to kathaleena Cancel reply