52 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-20-16”

  2. Good morning Aj.
    That looks like a good place early in the morning.
    You can tell it’s morning by the shadows.
    If it were afternoon, they would be in another direction.
    😆

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  5. Just look at i Linda. It’s a morning picture.!
    I’ll bet you an “Attaboy” it’s a morning picture.
    Ask Kim.

    Not a QoD. But interesting speculation:
    I Matthew 19:13-15, Jesus blesses the little children.
    I have often wondered what that blessing meant.
    When someone is blessed by The Lord, he has been blessed.
    When those children are grown, I presume they became Christians. They would have been involved in the wars of AD 70 against Rome. I have often wondered about how their lives were affected because they were blessed by Jesus.

    When Chuck was two weeks old, we were taking him into the nursery at Travis Avenue BC.
    Up came the pastor, Robert E. Naylor. He saw him and came over and blessed him.
    Naylor wasn’t Christ. But I have often wondered about that.
    Chuck doesn’t know that. I’ll have to tell him.

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  6. Because the Kid was a surprise adoption he attended his own baby shower. That day my Aunt, who is an evangelist, prayed that he would become a preacher. It is possible. He has charisma. .

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  7. The blessing by Dr. Naylor wasn’t a passing thing. We were walking in from the parking lot.
    Dr. Naylor was in the vicinity. He came over and blessed Everett (his name). It has been 57 years and I hadn’t thought of that. It may be that Dr. Naylor was led to do that. At the time, we just thought it was a nice gesture.

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  8. Chas, I believe you, just am wondering how you knew the direction of the photo. The camera would have to be facing west, right? How can you tell that it is? This looks to me as though it could also be an evening photo (if the camera were facing east).

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  9. Good Morning…we had a wonderful rain storm last night and the sun is shining bright in the forest this morning…I’m off to work…Paul’s home and he is as happy as a clam having being amongst “his people”….lots of stories to tell and after sleeping in the back of his truck for the past 5 days he is still snoozing at almost 7 this morning…that never happens! Have a blessed day ya’ll!

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  10. I know there are people who can tell the direction of the photo by the shadow. I can’t. I will tell you that I know this is a morning photo because anytime other than early morning that deck would have had people milling about. I live in the Central time zone and this was in the West time zone. Of course I was wide awake by 6 or 6:30 every morning, no matter how exhausted I was the night before. I had to get dressed and walk up to the lodge to get coffee. In the bottom right had corner of the photo you can see the arm a a swing. It was the most coveted spot to sit with cushions and pillows. A perfect, fantasy place to nap and read if you had had the time. I was sitting on it drinking coffee and I looked over and thought what a wonderful happy place to be right at this exact moment, so I took the photo. It is on my computer as my screen saver and I thought I would share it with you. So, grab a cup of coffee, stare at the photo and we can pretend we are all having a nice morning cup of coffee together.
    (Also, because of the schedule at the ranch, I wouldn’t have been in that spot at sunset. I would have been “down the hill” at Big Top for the evenings lesson.)

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  11. I thought Chas was right about it being a morning photo even before Kim confirmed it, because it looks brighter than the sun looks by the time evening shadows are that long. But there may be nothing at all to that impression, because logically I think morning and evening shadows should look about the same.

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  12. Yesterday I asked for prayer on the prayer thread. I knew it was going to be a rough day. I had CE in the morning and during the breaks I had to go back into my office and work. Because of some things that Guy wanted done I was late getting back into the CE class. The instructor is a great teacher and one of those naturally likable, funny men. His rule is if your cell phone goes off, if you are caught doing anything you shouldn’t in CE or if you are late you have to sing. I was late. As I walked past him to get back to my seat he said, “Mrs H, I believe you are late”. I pointed to the back of the room where Guy was supposed to be sitting as an explanation for my lateness. (EVERYone understands how demanding he is). The instructor said, “Oh, I understand. I think when he gets back you two should sing a duet of I Feel Pretty, oh so pretty. I told him no. I don’t sing. I have had more than one husband tell me not to. The first turned the radio off and said I have been meaning to tell you not to do that. The second one asked me who sang a song that was on the radio. I thought it was a serious question so I told him who sang it. He said, “How about we let them sing it”. I didn’t have to sing.
    Yesterday afternoon, any time I was brave enough to glance at my phone Guy wanted to know what I was doing. I worked straight through until 5 pm. When I started packing up to go home he said he still needed me to work on a land package and the maps to go with it. Several times I had asked if he had identified the other 3 properties throughout the day. He hadn’t. That is one of my major problems with him. He doesn’t get focused until about something until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon. My brain shuts down about that time. I can’t make him understand that. We both want to bend the other to our will and it doesn’t work.

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  14. Beautiful, peaceful spot in that photo. 🙂

    I haven’t had coffee in a while, think I’ll make some this morning. I got a good night’s sleep last night (unlike the night before — I was dragging and yawning most of the day yesterday). Today should be better.

    Waiting for the workers to arrive so they can maybe finish the patio work today, they made a lot of headway yesterday.

    When I got home last night I didn’t even watch the convention, so unusual for me. I just don’t care this time. So I walked the dogs instead, a much better use of time (and the dogs would surely agree!).

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  15. I am not doubting that it’s a morning picture.
    I am not questioning the lighting.
    I am asking how Chas knew it was morning by the direction of the shadows.

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  19. So workers think they’ll finish today, yay. I think I’m ready for a rest from all of this. I’m sure they are, too, although they probably have more work to get to for someone else.

    Meanwhile, guess I’ll dash into work early since I will have to scoot back here in the afternoon to get them paid and sent on their way. Dogs are locked in again for the next several hours, but they’ll get their backyard back soon. And Annie will have a new-and-improved patio to take naps in. 🙂

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  21. Husband is stuck in a holding pattern. But he really likes his company. And he is meeting interesting folk. He talked with a guy last night who emigrated from Chile twenty years ago. He loves trucking, has been married forty seven years, has four children, and, since arriving in the USA (which he also loves) he has built up to owning five trucks. The Ukrainians immigrated fifteen years ago and now have a trucking company. They also love the opportunity in this country. So many people, so many jobs, so much opportunity.

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  23. My daughter returned from Nicaragua Monday night and thankfully, had yesterday off. She described the trip as excellent and thanks all for prayers.

    The weather was rainy but mild which kept the mosquitoes at bay (only one bite); perhaps that was aided by the fact she had a family of bats living in her cabin . . .

    They saw 1080 people in three days and without the usual 4-5 Peace Corps translators, managed well. They had one guy all three days and a young woman showed for day 2-3. In their absence, the two teenage girl college students demonstrated their Spanish abilities and my daughter’s practice with medical terminology and speaking Spanish from her job, worked very well.

    “The only time I had trouble and had to call over a translator was when they said something like ‘we appreciate this!'”

    They had about 25 Bibles left over, which was a surprise, but CR helped an older man with major pterygiums (crystals in the eyes which makes it difficult to read; common in countries with a lot of sun) who said he was a pastor and needed to be able to read well. They worked a long time with him and when they were all done, gave him the extra Bibles. He was thrilled.

    She had taken several EMT materials with her, not sure why since other than she was the medical care for the team, but when she visited the local clinic, saw the answer right away.

    The medical assistant, the only one for a large area without a doctor, had a stethoscope, that was all. She handed over her stethoscope, a blood pressure cuff, scissors to cut off clothing, and a battery-operated pulsometer. There may have been other items.

    He was near to tears.

    A very good trip and now she’s returned to figure out her real life. 🙂

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  26. From yesterday’s conversation about verbing nouns:

    Karen, you mentioned the noun “impact” getting verbed. I happened to think of my husband talking about and using the impact wrench out in the garage. So impact is also an adjective. 🙂

    Here’s another word I recalled today — an adjective which has gotten nouned, and it drives me almost crazy when used as a noun! — the word “myriad.”

    I always understood “myriad” as a synonym for “many.” For example, take the phrase “myriad possibilities.” Why am I seeing more and more a rephrasing that says, “a myriad of possibilities”?

    Putting “myriad” after the article “a” makes “myriad” a noun.

    What’s a myriad?

    It also makes the sentence wordier, adding “a” before and “of” after “myriad,” even though, yes, those words are quite short.

    Is it acceptable to use “myriad” like that?

    Is it like “variety” and “various”? For example, you could correctly say “various possibilities” or “a variety of possibilities,” but if you used the word “many,” you could say “many possibilities,” but not “a many of possibilities”! 🙂

    In any case, I do not like the “a myriad of…” phrasing, not one little bit. 😛

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  27. 6, it is times like these when I pull out the Oxford English Dictionary, which says of ‘myriad’ that it is either: a noun, meaning “an indefinitely great number” or, historically, “a unit of ten thousand”; or an adjective, meaning “innumerable” or “having innumerable elements”. So, it can either be used to say “a myriad (noun) of troops” or “myriad (adjective) troops”, both are correct.

    So, I mentioned I was trying to choose an elective. One option is to play in the school’s orchestra, but I have to audition…

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  28. Rats, that sounds pretty official about the correctness of “a myriad of…” then. 😉 Pardon my early rant.

    But, why would one use four words, “a myriad of _____”, when only two are needed: “myriad [noun]”?

    Anyway, I’ll quit being contrary. 🙂

    Go for the audition, Roscuro! I just heard Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in its entirety a little bit ago, and I tell you, that last movement is so sunny and triumphant, it moves me to tears. Literally. Wouldn’t you love to play in an orchestra and get to perform something like that work?

    Really, Roscuro. Go for it! We’ll pray you through your audition.

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  29. 6 Arrows, your question, “Why would one use four words … when only two are needed?” could open the door to myriad pet peeves about unnecessary wordiness. Here’s the one that’s been getting to me lately:

    “On a daily basis”

    What happened to “every day”? Or just “daily”?

    Liked by 2 people

  30. Kevin, yes! That’s a good one. And another, which I recall from a book I read a year or two ago, entitled Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less — Karen, there’s that word “impact” again! — now where was I? That sentence was too long!!

    Sorry. 😉

    The book criticized the saying “at this point in time.” IOW, why not just say “now”?

    Why make things simple when they can be complicated? 😉

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  31. Thanks for the vote of confidence, 6 Arrows. I’m going to try, but it has been over a decade since I brought any classical piece up to the professional level of polish. I feel nervous doing it without a teacher’s supervision. I was wishing as I was practicing today that my teachers had taught me a foolproof method of deciding what fingering to use.

    On verbing nouns: You can blame Shakespeare: http://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/verbing-shakespeares-linguistic-innovation

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  34. So, above I complained about how demanding Guy was yesterday. Today, I got a message from the receptionist that the Real Estate Commission was at the office auditing them. (we have a separate door into the same building and an office that connects to the main office. I sent Guy a message because this time around HE IS THE BROKER!!!! I had tried to call him but he was on his phone, so I sent a text telling him to either leave the office or no go there if he wasn’t there. They always have to see the broker. He called me in a few minutes and told me the real estate commission was there. I said, yes I know. He asked if I was on my way in. I told him I hadn’t planned on it. He asked if I didn’t think I needed to be there for the audit. I said no, I’m not the broker, you are. He wanted to to come in. I did. I went through the audit, and passed it. I know it was bad of me to enjoy telling him I wasn’t the broker. LOL

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  36. On redundancy in phrases: One of the things I kept pointing out to the budding author as I edited her work was that shorter phrases or the substitution of a single word for a phrase was more effective, especially at a dramatic point in the plot. Also, there were times that the longer phrase had either two words which meant the same thing, or the phrase was self-contradictory, e.g. “almost completely”. I learned to appreciate efficient wording when I started commenting online. Longer comments are harder to read.

    That being said, the phrase ‘a myriad of’ does not mean quite the same thing as ‘myriad’ used as an adjective. Myriad’s etymology comes, via Latin, from the Greek number for ten thousand. So, ‘a myriad of’ is ‘a unit of’ measurement.

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  37. Beautiful morning here. I’m ready to get to work. It was surprising the things I found in my suitcase. I had packed some of it early and forgot what was there

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  40. Ten year old is out flying a kite. Not very windy and it is a stunt kite so he has to pay attention. He was quite frustrated when he first went out but I showed him some ideas, he implemented some and he was watching it soar as I walked down from the mailbox. He is up there with his kite. He will get tired soon and come home but he will have flown a kite and that is a good thing.

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  41. Mumsee, flying a kite is therapeutic. There is something relaxing about feeling the tug of the kite on the string. Unless one is Benjamin Franklin, of course 😉

    Cheryl, I think they phrase it that way because “Call us” is essentially a command. So is “Give us a call”, but the use of “Give us a ___” has long been used as a friendly, even endearing colloquialism. In the 1938 production of The Adventures of Robin Hood, there is a scene where Much the Miller says to the lady in waiting, “Give us a kiss, and wish me luck!” (Whereupon the lady in waiting kisses him, slaps his cheek, and says “Hurry up and take your stupid head out of here!”) The radio station doesn’t want to appear to be dictating to their listeners, but they do want to entreat their listeners to respond.

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  43. It’s pretty hot here today — the patio is done and it looks huge all of a sudden. Amazing what taking off a sagging, too-low roof can do to open up a space. So got him paid and he’s on his way. Back to my Salvation Army closet clean-out now while I ponder paint colors.

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  45. Somebody called and left a message. She told me that the sheriff dept was on its way to arrest me in the next two hours on four warrants and I needed to call her right back. If I chose not to call her, all she could say was good luck. They must not have gotten the memo as they have not arrived yet. I did not call her.

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  46. So there are myriads of word issues here I see. Redundancies are my peeve. How about advertisers talking about “as an extra added bonus…”? Doesn’t “extra” imply “added”? What’s worse is “free bonus” since a bonus is already free.

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  48. Roscuro, I can sympathize with the fingering issue, as no one taught me a foolproof method for it on viola, either. 😉 There are so many factors that come into play. Sometimes it’s better to stay on the same string and shift up (or back down); sometimes changing to another string and staying in the same position is better.

    Which piece(s) are you playing for your audition? Is the tone quality of each string on your violin different enough from the adjacent string(s) that it would be preferable to play on one string versus another, to get an appropriate timbre for the character of the piece?

    Or maybe just consider in which position(s) your intonation is best.

    I think you will do well, and I am glad to hear you are going to try out. When are the auditions?

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  52. Let it be hereby known I am up before the new thread. I’ve even read several chapters of Scripture and taken Misten out with me to sit on the front steps for a few minutes (though she chose to stay on her feet and walk around, not sit or lie down).

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