84 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-28-16”

  4. Thanks for letting me win the internet yesterday. I’m sure glad the chickie-prize had already been given away. Maybe I can win a butterfly.
    Today is our 37th wedding anniversary. We are celebrating with our week at the ocean, just like we have for all but two years since we honeymooned here.

    Liked by 7 people

  7. Butterfly perfection!

    Morning, folks in most of the states! Evening, Jo! I hope you get eight hours of peaceful rest uninterrupted by yowling cats. I hope all is well for Tychicus, too, whatever the time.

    Windows are open. Their morning breath is sweet. Miss Bosley, of fishy breath, will vouch for that.

    Yesterday my brother applied for a job I found on Linkedin. He seemed excited by the possibility of an interview. His need for good employment continues. He misses a paycheck with benefits.

    A cool breeze is drifting in. Wish we could hold this temp, but it will only last for maybe an hour.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. When I opened the Internet this morning I was reminded of the saying “politics makes for strange bedfellows” Very true.
    I did not watch any of the convention last night. I watched Secrets od Ancient Greece and Secrets od Ancient Rome. Did you know that the Romans had developed a pulley crane system that worked like a hamster wheel? A professor in Louisiana built one and was able to lift 2 tons by having 3 men walk inside the wheel. Did you know the Parthenon was most probably painted with bright colors? It also has iron pieces that were originally embedded in lead between the piece of marble that are stacked to allow the columns to “shift” during an earthquake bUT not tumble down. We tend to think we are so smart and more advanced that the people in the past but they were no dummies.
    All of this much more interesting that the Homage to Hillary.

    Liked by 6 people

  9. Linda, happy anniversary!

    The butterfly is a spicebush swallowtail, a species I was very pleased to be able to photograph. Most swallowtails are black and yellow, different amounts of each color, and we have three species that come fairly regularly. Well, locally we also have at least two blue swallowtails and a butterfly that isn’t a swallowtail but looks somewhat similar (the red-spotted purple); I’ve photographed the red-spotted purple in our yard but also gotten several pictures of it in the Smokies, and I’ve gotten a really good photo of the pipevine swallowtail in the Smokies. But the Spicebush had mostly eluded me–in Nashville I got one photo of part of it, with a film camera, before I knew what it was, but its beauty made me hope to get another chance someday. That photo of a whole bunch of tiger swallowtails and one blue-and-black butterfly, in the Smokies, the blue one was this one.

    In our yard, tiger swallowtails and giant swallowtails come readily to our coneflowers, black swallowtails come readily to our grass but rarely to the flowers (though this year one is coming to our flowers), but blue butterflies will fly around in the neighbor’s yard and then come to the fence and maddeningly fly along the fence and out through our front yard without ever coming into our yard or landing.

    This one was much kinder. A fresh new butterfly (not torn or faded as they get after they’ve been around a while) came to our coneflowers while my husband and I were sitting out there on the deck and I had my camera. I didn’t even have to stand up to get several good pictures of it, though after it had hung around a bit I went ahead and got up and got some pictures from a different angle. It hung around for several minutes and went to several flowers, and wasn’t disturbed when I stood up and went closer to it–the perfect setup to finally get some nice shots of the species, but even better just to be able to watch it. (By the way, if you get a chance to get photos of butterflies, in my experience it’s best to get a few photos from a distance just so that you have something, but if it hangs around more than a minute or two, you can often safely move closer. It seems to me that once they have feasted a while, they are glutted a bit with sugar and more approachable–although sometimes they figure they have had their fill anyway and they quickly leave the flowers. But the very worst time to try to get close is when they first arrive and haven’t yet had a chance to see how good your flowers taste; they’ll just fly away. If it has at least had a taste before it flies, sometimes you can stay close to the flowers and stay still and it will come back, but sometimes it won’t return.)

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Good Morning…the sunshine is spilling through the forest and it is so still and quiet..how I love these mornings. Something has been unscrewing one of our hummingbird feeders…the hook from which it hangs is not bent…the feeder is very high on the tree…if it was a bear the hook would be bent…could it be a raccoon? It happens overnight never during daylight hours….

    Liked by 1 person

  12. “Could be them dern tree rats”. Squirrels are wiley little creatures. You can buy a squirrel resistant bird feeder, but it will cost you and they will figure it out. My dad spent many hours on his back deck with a BB gun defending his pecan tree.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. A squirrel Nancy.
    I’ll betcha it was a squirrel.
    One of the things I learned during my 15 years in Hendersonville is that squirrels are smart.
    They cogitate. They can defeat every feeding device.
    Except I got a bird feeder they couldn’t defeat. In all these years, they couldn’t defeat it.
    They destroyed it.

    Liked by 3 people

  14. I told you this a long time ago, I believe.
    I had a friend in Virginia who trained the squirrels not to bother his feeder.
    He had his feeder in the open. No problem at all for a squirrel.
    However, he ran an electric line and separated the two wires. When a squirrel got on the feeder they closed the circuit and jumped off. They trained themselves not to bother his feeder.

    I would never use that technique. Even when there was no chance of a child messing with it.
    Too dangerous. Not a good idea.

    Liked by 2 people

  16. Nice flutterby.

    I’m with you, Kim. I didn’t watch much of the GOP convention either. And on Twitter it seems the Trump supporters can’t get over winning. They berate any posts by Cruz or Cruz supporters. Bullies, just like their guy.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. What a dashing butterfly. 🙂 Good tips on how to photograph them, too.

    I was convinced last night that this would be trash pickup morning — but that’s really on Friday. I didn’t figure that out until after I got up at 6:30 this morning, thinking, gotta get the trash out, gotta get the trash out … Oh. Wait. …

    So confused I am.

    I’m grateful I have a story to do today, we’re in our very slow period, not a lot of news going on and everyone you need to talk to is out of town.

    I didn’t watch the convention either. Our councilman is a super delegate there and he’s posting videos on social media. I’m not even watching those. Bah, Humbug! I say.

    California had a flex-energy day yesterday due to the widespread heat (and uncharacteristic high humidity which made the 80s feel like the 90s). And I was dealing with Carol most of the day via texts, she was having a “poor me” day, mad at the world (rare for her, really). But she was on a tear and nothing was right, the universe was out to get her and it wasn’t fair because she’s ‘retired’ and disabled. It’s hard to feel sympathy for people when they’re doing such a good job of feeling sorry for themselves.

    Anyway, it culminated last night with another plea for me to come on Saturday, but I think she’s accepted that we’ll have to talk over her issues by phone. She’s having a fall-out with the friend from church on top of it all, she feels like the friend is too controlling, trying to help her with a budget (which Carol gave up on long ago after so many money failures, it’s a weak point and she’s weary of trying to fight it, I definitely get how discouraging these battles with indwelling sin can be, but I told her we can never give up the fight — God calls us to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil in this life, though they will be our persistent enemies).

    It reminded me of something our pastor said last Sunday, that the Christian life isn’t so much of a “walk” as it is a fight.

    Meanwhile, I have a couple window frames that are in bad shape — they were ones that were obscured for many years by a gigantic jasmine vine against the house — and after a phone call to someone yesterday it sounds as if it may be more complicated and expensive to fix or replace than I first thought. I need to have a window place come out to take a look and figure out what my options are, I really want to save or replicate what’s there rather than go with vinyl replacements if at all possible.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. I didn’t know a squirrel could nicely unscrew the bottom of a hummingbird feeder, that is screwed on very tightly, and drain all the nectar out. They don’t bother it during the day as it is on an extender hook which would cause them to swing about with no foothold….
    That is a lovely butterfly…we have huge, I mean humongous caterpillars out front in my flower garden…Paul says they will turn into beautiful monarch butterflies…all I know they are munching on my flowers and I’m not so keen on that!
    I love that song by Alison Krauss…she has such a beautiful voice!

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Donna, I think with the age of your home and the possible historical value of it, you would be wise to go back with “like” windows. I wouldn’t alert the “Hysterical Society” until you get it painted the colors you wish to paint but I would check in with them later to see if you have any historical significance. I am not sure if those homes get any type of tax break or not but it is worth looking into.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Good thought, Kim, I’ll poke around online but we also have a local historical society that might know.

    I have found a nearby place that specializes in restoring windows on these homes (and if they can’t restore, they replace) — they look a little high-end for me, and I’m sure it’s not cheap no matter who does the work (but these people look like they’d be the most knowledgable).

    Restoring or replacing (exactly using the same materials) is definitely my strong preference. I think these guys would be the best to come out for an actual assessment (I sent photos to a contractor I know yesterday and he was pretty discouraging, saying it would take weeks and weeks to create replicas and that it would be $$$$$).

    My house was ‘updated’ in the 1970s with an add-on kitchen and extra ‘bonus’ room, so I doubt it would have any “official” historic status with the city in that sense, but I will see what I can find out.

    The windows are an odd/custom size (long and thin, French-style), though, and are one of the best features of this house in my view. So I don’t want to mess with them or replace them with something cheap and ‘modern.’ Maybe I’ll call the place today to see if they can get out here either on Saturday or can make an early morning appt next week.

    I can’t move forward with painting until I deal with that first and I don’t want all of this to drag into our (potential) rainy season.

    Like

  26. Nancy Jill, if caterpillars are eating your flowers, they aren’t monarch caterpillars. Monarchs only eat milkweed leaves. You can probably find out what type of insect they are by looking at their colors and then googling “Orange and black caterpillar” (or whatever color they are). I had two big monarch caterpillars on my milkweed last week, but they’re gone now . . . so somewhere I probably have two monarch chrysalises but I couldn’t find them last year and I can’t find them this year. I knew they were big enough that they’d be making them soon, and I haven’t seen either since Sunday morning.

    Like

  27. Happy Anniversary, Linda!

    Donna – We, & our neighbors, put out trash cans out the evening before trash pick-up. Is that something you could do?

    Like

  28. This is what my caterpillars look like…not certain if they could have a cousin that appears similar but these are eating my garden phlox leaves
    I hope this copies and pastes….I’m not tech savvy…

    Transformations: Which Caterpillar Becomes Which Butterfly? Image

    Like

  30. So why is the electric line dangerous? We use electric fence all over the place. Just yesterday our biggest buck decided to climb his fence to go visit the girls but changed his mind when his nose touched the electric wire.

    Liked by 1 person

  31. Yesterday I wrote about some of the comments that were directed towards YF. Last night, I ended up deleting that whole post, because I was beginning to feel sorry for YF with all those comments about her. But I saw that she had been on Facebook since those comments were made, so I’m pretty sure she saw them all. (Kim was on a roll, commenting to her on another post, too. 🙂 ) 1st Daughter was disappointed in me, thinking I should have left it up, & that YF was getting what she deserved.

    What I didn’t write yesterday, I’ll tell you today.

    1st Daughter is also FB friends with YF. She has often remarked to me about how condescending & arrogant YF can be, but she doesn’t comment, because she doesn’t like to get into contentious FB discussions. There’ve been times I wished she had commented to YF what she would remark to me. The day before yesterday, 1st Dtr made a similar comment, that she almost “liked” a comment of mine to YF, but backed off.

    After talking with her, when I was alone, I felt disappointed. I wished she would want to “defend” me sometimes, & I mentioned that to God. Well, yesterday, my “defense” came out of the woodwork in the form of Kim & Linda, along with my friend Nadine. Thank you, ladies.

    As I said yesterday, I pray YF will have an open heart to learn from those comments, even though she probably initially felt angry or embarrassed.

    Liked by 2 people

  32. Ooh, you’ll have to keep an eye on them nancyjill. 🙂

    Karen, I don’t like putting out trash the night before because: Trash diggers go up and down the street, dragging out all your recyclables to roll away in big shopping carts — maybe it shouldn’t bug me, but it does.

    And as for the “real” garbage, we’re advised not to leave that out overnight because it has become one of our many coyote attractants.

    Liked by 2 people

  33. Karen, I have been having a couple of other discussions with the Condescending Little Girl this morning. I am only a little ashamed of myself but not enough to apologize to her. I will apologize to you. She needs to have a good dose of her own medicine.

    You all know that I am the least confrontational person I know, so I am not in the habit of doing what I am doing and am probably not very good at it, but sometimes I cannot stand aside and let someone treat someone else the way YF has treated Karen.

    Liked by 3 people

  34. Karen, something tells me she didn’t feel all that embarrassed 🙂 But I’m praying with you that God will turn her more inward to evaluate her own attitudes and tone toward those with whom she disagrees, to develop some humility about her assumptions about own intellectual abilities and (more importantly) her own spiritual state.

    Liked by 2 people

  35. Linda, first of all Happy Anniversary and second, what a wonderful tradition to go back every year to where you took your honeymoon. Cheryl, aren’t you doing the same thing?

    Liked by 1 person

  39. Have I ever shared with you my “theory” about why “Andy” & “Margie” (not their real names, of course) have four grown young women sharing a bedroom in their apartment, & why they have not pushed YF to get a job (it’s been six years now since she graduated college)? This came to me one day when I was thinking about the situation, & remembering some things Margie had said in the past. One thing was that when the girls were little, she was highly reluctant to accept any invitation or attend any event that would not include her girls. Another time, when her daughters were 15 & 21, she was reminding them to be careful on a walk they were going to take, & to look both ways before crossing the busy street, as if she were talking to little children.

    So I came to the conclusion (which 1st Daughter & L think sounds probable) that Margie has so strongly wrapped her identity in being a mother to children that she needs her girls to still be children, & I think she likes having the “extra children” (2nd Daughter & the other friend who lives with them) there, too. (I’ve seen YF refer to them as her adopted sisters.)

    We’ve also seen evidence of Margie sometimes treating Andy like a child, too. (For instance, one time he was not “allowed” to get a CD that she did not approve of.) In an email conversation, my former pastor’s wife wrote that Andy seemed to be ruled by the women/girls in his life. On top of that, I think both parents are ruled by their daughters in many ways. (It was the younger sister’s idea for 2nd Daughter to move in with them.)

    Within the past week, one of 1st Daughter’s friends observed the McK family in shopping in Aldi’s. She told 1st Dtr that Margie talked to her daughters as if they were children, not grown women.

    One of my prayers for their family is for “Andy” to man up, to grow deeper into his faith & his knowledge of God & His word, & be the leader of that household that God wants him to be.

    Liked by 1 person

  40. Love that song, Kim. Especially love to hear my daughter sing it with her church music partners. They do not sing it for a service, however, but just for their own joy.

    Happy anniversary, Linda.

    Some people just cannot take the uncomfortableness of challenging someone else. Fb is especially public, so can make it even more difficult. I am thankful for the blog that helped me to be able to think through my thoughts and consider more how someone else may perceive them before posting online. On blogs, others don’t even know who you are, necessarily. On fb you will probably run into the people you have ‘friended’ at some point. That can make some encounters better or worse. It can make some people just not want to challenge anyone’s posts.

    Liked by 2 people

  41. CLG doesn’t have a job? Hmmmm. Is she educated or trained do do something in particular that just doesn’t offer any openings? Is she actively looking? Why isn’t she working at least part-time slinging hot dogs or whatever until she can get a career (in whatever) up and running? She sounds pretty unhappy, actually.

    And what is Aldi’s?

    Liked by 2 people

  43. Kim, my husband and I take our anniversary trip the same place every year (so far), but it isn’t where we honeymooned. Our honeymoon was in the Smokies, and our cabin cost more than we want to pay every year. But we have gone back to the Smokies three more times, twice in late summer/early fall (before the color we had on our honeymoon) and once (this year) in the spring, because my sister-in-law has several weeks in a timeshare and sometimes they have an extra week they let us use inexpensively. (Well, the first year was their wedding gift to us, and the other two were weeks we paid something to use, but less than we’d normally have to pay.)

    We talked about going back to our honeymoon cabin this year for our fifth, but when we researched the price it was more than we really wanted to pay, so I left it up to him whether we’d do it. And then we got a chance to go to the Smokies this spring, instead, for about a third the price, so we decided we would do that, go to our “usual” spot for our anniversary (but not on our anniversary itself this time), and maybe go to our honeymoon cabin for our tenth.

    Since we will actually be at home on our anniversary, I’m going to push to go back to the nice restaurant we went to the night we got engaged, but haven’t eaten at since. His parents and his sister go occasionally and they talk about it, and we haven’t been back. The fifth seems a worthy time for a little splurge like that.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Oh, Aldi’s is a grocery store (I pictured a children’s store!). We apparently have some just starting up in Southern Ca but not many (and none in my area that I’ve ever heard of or seen).

    Like

  46. YF definitely has a very high opinion of herself & her intelligence, so it is very possible that she waved off all those comments as people just being rude to her. She’s one of those who can dish it out, but gets highly offended when others treat her the least bit rudely, or even merely in a firm manner.

    She has often questioned my education in certain topics, then mentioned that she took a semester on it in college, or “almost majored” in it. She is well aware that I did not go to college, & is convinced that she knows more than I do – on just about everything – because of it.

    Whenever she would lecture me, filling me in on all those details I couldn’t possibly know (in her mind), I would usually say, “Yes, YF, I already knew all that.” Finally, I one day said that I knew all or most of what she had just written (which she preceded by her telling me she had “almost majored” in that subject), & added, “even without a college education.” 🙂

    Like

  47. Donna, Aldi’s is a chain (in the East, I think–we had them in Chicago, eventually had them in Nashville, and there’s one in the “big city” here) that has fairly small stores stocked mostly with generics. You bag your own groceries using your own bags (or you take an empty box off their shelf and use it). It’s a great stock-up store since they have good prices on select items and you know exactly what they have. But you only buy one of anything the first time in case you don’t like it. (Most of their cereals aren’t very good, in my opinion, except that their rice krispies do work for rice krispy treats.)

    They tend to have a pretty small parking lot, keep costs as low as possible, and in Chicago I sometimes had to wait 20 minutes for a parking space and so I didn’t go very often. But I’d buy baby dills, corn chips, margarine (name brand), chocolate chips, chow mein (name brand), jellies, chili, and a few other things, maybe sardines and saltines. I tried their cheese but I don’t remember if I liked it. For some years they also had nice large grapefruit for 20 cents each, though I avoided their tomatoes. Oh, and they only take cash and maybe debit cards. So it isn’t for everyone, and they don’t have everything, but if you use and like the things they do have, you can save quite a bit of money. Their chocolate chips were 79 cents, for instance, when the best sale in any store was 99 cents, and several other things were about half the price of other stores. Their canned nuts were cheap and good. They had baby dill pickles that were the only baby dills I’ve ever really liked, so I always got two or three jars when I was there. And they had good prices on olives. (Generally I only like the larger dills.) I would also get frozen veggies there.

    When I tried to shop them in Nashville, I found their prices had gone up a bit, and they weren’t located anywhere that was very convenient for me, so for me they’re pretty much a store I shopped a few times a year in Chicago. Here there is one in the big city, but not that convenient for us, so we’ve only been in there once or twice.

    Like

  48. Karen, it sounds like you are right about your theory on the Mommy. That is pretty frightening as if she is in a sense enslaving people to her role playing. It truly is co-dependency on the uber scale (rather than co it is quad-dependency).

    Liked by 1 person

  49. Donna – She has a degree in psychology, which I understand is almost worthless without going on to grad school.

    I think she was looking for a job for a while, but I don’t think she was open to anything like McDonald’s or Starbucks or the like. At least, she wasn’t years ago, & now her options are severely limited by not being able to drive (because of not being on her parents’ insurance).

    Over the years, I would mention to her when Claire’s had an opening, or another opening I saw listed on the town Facebook page, but she did not pursue them.

    At this point, what employer would want to hire someone who has not worked in over six years without a good reason?

    Like

  51. In Chicago, one time I was waiting in the Aldi’s parking lot for an open space, which as I said was usually a 20 minute wait or more, and I’d waited at least that long and it was finally my turn. I had a little Toyota Tercel at the time. One time a space was opening up, and so I drove up next to it, put on my blinker, and waited for the car to back out. About then, a driver came up off the street (no 20-minute wait) and decided to take the space I was clearly waiting for, blinker and all.

    Let’s just say it’s sometimes convenient to have a small car, and I got the space. But I couldn’t believe someone would be so rude as to ignore the fact that someone was already in the lot and clearly waiting for that specific space.

    Liked by 2 people

  52. Here in Connecticut, which has a pretty high cost-of-living, we save a lot at Aldi, & we like most of their products. Their Choceur brand of chocolate is very good, for instance. Ours our suburban, so we don’t have the parking problem Cheryl described having in the city.

    Like

  53. Karen,

    I don’t think you took it down, because I just read it again on Facebook. It’s still there, and you should leave it.

    People like YF, who think they know everything, are especially annoying to those of us who do. 🙂

    But you explaining the family dynamic partly explains her behavior. She seems to want to be the mom in charge on Facebook, and let no one challenge her authority! 🙄

    Probably has something to do with her overbearing mother. That’s the tone she takes, one of an overbearing mother. Maybe she’ll grow up when she finally leaves home and gets out from under her own mother’s thumb. But I doubt it.

    Liked by 1 person

  54. Karen, a lot of women go years without working outside the home, and for an entry-level job I seriously doubt an employer would care. If you can hire a woman in her late twenties with a college degree or a kid in high school, you’ll take the older employee as more likely to be dependable and mature. Now, you might be proven wrong, but I suspect most employers would make that choice, if otherwise they seemed equivalent. (If both could work the hours you needed them to, handled the interview OK, and so forth.)

    I suspect that a reasonably smart person would be able to come up with some sort of answer if they did happen to get asked a “why” question. (You mention your volunteer work, that your dad was in the hospital and needed your care, that you were doing some additional studying on your own, whatever. Whether any of those tasks took much of your time isn’t relevant to the employee. I suspect that their fear of discriminating against women, including women who have been housewives for a few years, would allow them to ask for your relevant experience but NOT what on earth you have been doing with yourself the last six years. Your experience is their business, but your laziness or industry really isn’t.) Entry-level jobs often have revolving doors in terms of employee turnover, so anyone who can handle themselves reasonably well in an interview can be hired if they show up at the time a new employee is needed.

    Like

  55. Oh yeah, Aldi’s also has generic Tylenol and ibuprofen, so I used to buy it there. It wasn’t as well coated as the name brands (I wanted to swallow it quickly or it had an aftertaste), but it was much cheaper, and their Ziploc bags and other stuff (generic, of course) were also a good price. Basically I had a mental list of things I liked to buy there, and when I was running low on several of them I would make an Aldi run and stock up. But you have to remember to take your own bags and enough cash. But I probably averaged savings of at least a third, maybe 50%, over other shopping, and it was well worth the inconvenience. I tend to shop sales, so if I could get generic tuna at Aldi’s for 45 cents and it was regularly on sale somewhere else for 50 cents, then it wasn’t worth the hassle of buying it there. But if something was both good and cheaper than other stores’ sale prices, then I’d buy it there.

    Like

  57. Six years unemployed is a challenge to overcome, unfortunately — along with a degree in psychology. (And you know what they say about psych majors … ) I also think it’s true that a BS (or BA?) in psychology is of little help without graduate school degrees.

    Her overbearing and condescending tone probably belie an underlying insecurity, maybe even panic. The 20s can be a very difficult time — even more so if you don’t have a clear goal or position in life and are somewhat adrift indefinitely.

    It sounds like she also doesn’t have much of a work ethic. A prospective employer would be much more impressed if she had been stringing together some part-time gigs, lowly though they be,but doing what she could and proving herself in the meantime to be a reliable and productive employee (no matter what the “field”). We can learn and grow a lot just by being an employee, even if it’s not our ideal job.

    This must bother her at some level, she knows she’s falling behind. The world has changed and women (or men) hanging out at home unemployed and unmarried — barring extenuating circumstances — is not a great spot to be in.

    Liked by 4 people

  58. I’m not saying YF’s choices are “excusable” (except insofar as her parents have never asked her to do anything different, it sounds like). My point is actually that she can’t rationalize that she’s unemployable because she hasn’t held a job recently–unless there’s a really tight job market in one area, minimum-wage jobs usually hire just about anyone if the person can manage an interview OK. And I doubt a potential employer will be willing to delve too deeply into “why” there is no recent employment–you get into “none of your business” grounds pretty quickly, and especially with a woman, employers probably won’t take that chance. (For all they know, she may have been married and a housewife, volunteering on the side, but recently divorced. And employers just cannot ask such questions as whether you’re married, whether you’ve had children, etc. in an interview. She might have five young children she’s been caring for!)

    But yes, an undergrad in psychology is useless, probably not much better than just a high school diploma, in terms of getting a job. But most jobs don’t care what your degree is in if they don’t “need” a degree in a specific field.

    Liked by 1 person

  59. What Karen wrote about how the mother runs the family explains to be why she continues to act like a spoiled brat. She is still in the whiny toddler stage and hasn’t had to grow up. I am backing off of her today because as I told her I have a real job to pay my bills and taxes, etc and don’t have time for any more of her shenanigans today. Plus having experience with people like her, not getting the attention she wants and being drawn into her drama is more effective than anything else. They hate to be ignored and brushed off.

    Liked by 2 people

  60. BTW, one thing I liked about the photo of the butterfly facing left is the red and yellow grains of pollen (?) on the dark part of the lower wing.

    Like

  61. Happy anniversary to Linda.

    Karen, when I read about YF and her argumentativeness (yes, I have seen her comments on your posts, but don’t see much point in replying to her) and how she will not work (it is important to be merciful, as some young women, myself included, have difficultly getting a job, but it does seem a choice on YF’s part), a Proverb comes to mind: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.” (26:16) When you are working – and I have experienced this – you have to come into contact with people and their varying opinions. Either you learn to respect other people’s viewpoints, or you become unemployable because of your divisiveness. But someone who doesn’t work, ever, doesn’t have that polishing friction and can be as abrasive and opinionated as they please. Especially, when that person is communicating over the internet.

    Liked by 4 people

  62. Tooth update: I managed to break off half my tooth all the way to the gum line. Dentist said I’ll probably need an implant–done by an oral surgeon–as there’s not enough tooth left for a crown to remain secure. I have a pretty bad infection, so Doctor prescribed antibiotics, which I’ve already started. I have a consult scheduled for next Wednesday with the oral surgeon recommended by my dentist at home.

    Liked by 3 people

  65. Mumsee, on electric fencing, have any of your brood (the male human ones) ever had the brilliant idea daring each other to, er… relieve themselves against the electric fence? Certain now venerable members of my family used to do it as a practical joke (yes, the sense of humour of my extended family is a bit off kilter). I’m told that the effect is… electrifying.

    Liked by 2 people

  66. That is what I was referring to above Roscuro.
    The first thing you learn to do with a fence to see if it is “hot” or not is to tap it with the back of your hand.

    Like

  67. Chas’ Elvera would understand why I feel happy. I needed to get one or two sturdy TV tables to use in my attic room for desk/worktable, but for the type I wanted, the cheapest I could find was a set of four for about $100 online. Today, I decided to look in a small used furniture store, which sells donated items to raise money for an animal shelter. Almost the first item I saw was a complete set of the tables I was looking for, for $25. They were well used, but still in sound condition. I love it when the Lord brings everything together to provide for a small need.

    Liked by 10 people

  69. I work from home now. Sometimes I actually get up from my desk and use the restroom or go fix my lunch. Occasionally I go check the mail. I don’t feel the need to take my cell phone with me to do those things. I rarely leave the house during work hours and usually eat lunch at my desk because I no longer get a real lunch hour. If I miss a call from him I usually call him back within minutes. If I do need to leave the house he constantly calls wanting to know when I will be back. Today he called and I was taking BG to pick up her car from having it fixed. I got chewed out this afternoon because he can NEVER reach me. He wanted to know if I was vacuuming my house. When I told him no, he said he couldn’t be sure because last time he needed me I was mowing the grass. THAT WAS LAST SATURDAY MORNING ON MY OWN TIME!!!!!

    I have to blow off steam somewhere resume your lives now.

    Liked by 5 people

  70. And now, the spicebush swallowtail opens its wings (most of the way anyway) and lets us see its pretty blue shading inside. I think this is a really pretty species, and it was so fresh and new and let me watch from so close that I felt quite privileged.

    Liked by 1 person

  72. Kim, I know it is not the same, but my brother wants to be able to talk to me anytime. It is difficult when he does not have a job since I am his emotional support person. I hope he can find something soon. And I hope your boss guy will become so occupied with his work that he can’t get a free moment to bug you!♡

    Like

  73. Oh Ann….while the implant process can be a royal pain, I am so thankful you are on antibiotics…you will feel so much better with the infection gone….Paul had to have two implants a couple years ago….the time element was the bother…bone grafting, waiting for it to take, putting in the titanium something or other and then finally getting the tooth mounted…but it was well worth it for him…continued prayers for you!

    Liked by 1 person

  74. Hi. The house is feeling more homelike. I just crushed a dozen or so large boxes. I’ve put up closet rods and bought an antique dresser made of solid wood for the same price Wal-Mart had a cheap particle board one. I’ll go with something that will likely outlast me any day, even though it is smaller than the Wal-Mart version.

    Liked by 3 people

  76. Donna- Aldi (notice, there is no ‘s on it) is a grocery chain based Batavia, IL, though it originated in Germany. I heard that the owner is the brother (or other close relation) of the one who owns Trader Joe’s. Unlike Cheryl, I find their breakfast cereals high quality. Of course, we but the natural brand of granola they offer. Since there is the connection to Trader Joe’s, Aldi has improved in its quality without raising prices. They have a good selection of decent produce (better than the Wal-Mart around here). Also, around here the parking lots are bigger but the checkout lines are often long. I like that you pay a 25¢ rental for the shopping carts, so there are rarely any blocking parking spaces.

    Check it out, you’ll save money.

    Liked by 1 person

  80. Rocuro, the PCA general assembly is what took my husband and me down there. I didn’t eat any seafood in Mobile (my husband wasn’t feeling his best, and sub sandwiches sounded best to him more days than not), but I did have some good seafood with Kim–or were we in Mobile at that point? Abnd yes, the oak trees are amazing–it was oaks that were in that tunnel of trees with a car going through from the other direction in one of the photos posted in the last week or two. They also lined many Mobile streets, and a single huge old oak would take up most of the front yard of some mansion.

    I didn’t get to explore as much or Mobile as I might have liked–my husband was busy and not feeling well, and I had an 800-page book to work on. But two or three times a day I’d go outside for a few minutes just to get outside, and sometimes I went down to the waterfront (where I got the photos of gulls), and twice I got to spend time with Kim.

    Like

  81. The new photo is the candy-striped leafhopper–that’s just one of its names, but one of the best. I got a photo of one last year without knowing what I was seeing before I got the picture, because the insect is so tiny you really have no idea how colorful it is. This year, seeing it I wondered was it the same creature? So I zoomed in and sure enough, it is. It’s hard to zoom in on something so tiny and still have it in focus. (It’s shown above multiple times actual size.) This one from the side shows its eye, and I can just see a sneer on its little face. I got the color better on the one I got last year, or it was brighter. I think the one last year might have been an adult and this a juvenile, because this was even smaller, and it just looked dark (not colorful) until I zoomed in.

    Like

  83. I was out with the telescope trying to see the five visible planets as they are positioned to be seen now. I was looking at Saturn when the Space Station went by. That is so cool! I love seeing the Space Station and thinking how amazing that is along with the rest of the space race activities. Good work Chas!

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.