43 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-8-16”

  2. Me too, Aj. I’ve already had breakfast checked the mail and Hendersonville paper on-line to see if anything is happening.

    GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!

    A brand new week. So get to it.
    When I was a kid, I thought people were saying “Brown new”. I didn’t know what a brand was.
    I still don’t know the significance.. About the “brand”, I mean.

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  4. Morning Aj and Chas.
    Hummingbirds are pretty incredible. Thanks for the picture.
    We are getting a wonderful evening of rain. So appreciated. I didn’t really wnt to take a walk anyway.

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  5. Re: Discussions about what to call the kids yesterday.
    I never understood that.
    Call them by their names!
    My Becky has her own blog and she names names.
    Everyone you are hiding behind “oldest/middle/youngest”. “number one, two,” etc, are on twitter and facebook. Everyone who wants to know, knows who they are.
    So far as I know, there are only two Elvera’s in the world.
    Mine, and another one somewhere. 🙂

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  6. The only place I have ever witnessed hummingbirds NOT fighting over a feeder was at Mumsee’s Farmlette. Not surprising when you consider that it was Mumsee’s.
    Many years ago when I worked in downtown a hummingbird got caught under our awning. He wore himself out. One of the women got a ladder and was able to climb up and put him in a box. She took him to her house and carried him to the feeder. He got enough strength to beat her back to town to wear himself out again under the awning. There is a metaphor in there somewhere, now that I think about it….

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  7. Chas, it isn’t always that straightforward. For example, I have been a little bit more careful with privacy on here (not that I was ever super careless) since years ago when we had a braggart and bully among us who liked to harass a participant he didn’t like, and he posted something about the town the man lived in–a town never divulged on here. At the time I was a single woman living alone, and I had given my name and first initial of my last name, my town, my denomination, and the name of my dog, and it seemed to me that I’d maybe given a bit too much information even with that much.

    When we were getting married, I took off my last initial and chose not to replace it with my new one. (I’d only added an initial when one time one other Cheryl posted on World’s blog, but I never again saw her anyway, and by that time I’d established my presence as “the” Cheryl, so anyone else who came along with that name–sorry, AJ’s Cheryl–would be choosing a different name anyway.) I also chose not to name my husband–he cares more about privacy than I do, also–or my kids, name the town we’re living in, and so forth. While they were still teenagers, I was vague about their ages, and I never named where they went to college. When we were getting ready to get married, I did not say on here what our wedding date was (if anyone had figured out where I lived, I’d be announcing “my house is empty that week, and maybe it has lots of nice new wedding presents in it”) and to this day I don’t say when we’re leaving town, even though we never leave the house vacant.

    Now, Karen has someone in her extended family who has already shown criminal violence to one member of her family. If he or one of his friends were to figure out she posts on here, and she were to say something like “We’re taking Grandson to the zoo today,” that could be troublesome if he chose to cause trouble. Likewise, if she were to post something like “Older daughter lost her temper with Grandson today, and called him stupid,” he could make note of that to use it in court. In other words, for all of us, privacy might be a good idea, but for some of it it might be crucial.

    For me personally, I’ve always felt an odd mix of a desire not to be too open and a desire to be able to divulge a little bit more. For example, when we get on subjects on here that are connected with books I’ve edited, and especially with books I’ve written and gotten published, I’d like to be able to say that. I’ve wanted to recommend one of my books a couple of times when people have expressed curiosity about something on which I am actually a published author. And when one former poster mocked me as knowing nothing at all about one particular subject, I wanted badly to point out that a publisher she probably respected had thought I knew enough about the subject that they accepted a book from me on an aspect of that subject and published it. I specifically asked my husband whether he was OK with my mentioning my books on here, a blog with a smaller readership, and he did not want me giving away our identity on here (though he is fine with me e-mailing those of you who have my e-mail address, and so forth).

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  8. AJ, do you mean you’ve never seen a hummingbird before or never seen one to photograph?

    Re Mumsee’s hummingbirds: the only species we have in the east (apparently excepting parts of Florida) is the ruby-throated, and they are one of the most aggressive species. It makes sense that a hummingbird (which can die if it doesn’t get enough food, and it needs a lot) would defend a flower patch, and that’s what it sees a feeder as. But some other species are less aggressive, and also a hummingbird is less likely to defend its space against a female, or against a different species. So you’ll see pictures from the Southwest (Arizona is known for its hummingbird variety) where four or five feeders have ten or fifteen hummingbirds among them. That wouldn’t be possible if they were ruby-throated.

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  9. If I had a camera yesterday I would have taken pictures of hummingbirds at a flowering bush. I had never seen them at flowers before, only at feeders.

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  10. Chas- Mrs L is concerned about privacy and stalkers on the internet, so that is why she doesn’t like her picture posted. When we met Kim last year, we got a great shot of the three of us, but she asked that it not get put here, even though this is a small community, because it’s available to anyone who wants to see it. She didn’t even like that I told what town we lived in before we moved.

    So there is a reason some of us use pseudonyms for our children and grandchildren.

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  12. Cheryl,

    Until Friday I had never seen a real live hummingbird. Only pictures or on TV.

    And they were amusing. I saw at least 4 different birds. 3 at once. They’re nearly too fast to photo. And yes, every one of them chased others away if they showed up at the feeder.

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  13. Good morning, everyone.

    Interesting discussion on names. You all know I don’t use my real name on here, or those of my husband or children. Husband will remain husband or hubby, children will remain numbered arrows. Though sometimes I have identified them by [blank]-year-old [gender].

    I guarded my privacy quite a bit when I first started commenting on WMB. I was reluctant to name even the general region I lived in, though I did divulge I am in the U.S. But I slowly let my guard down, wanting to discuss, for example, what birds I’ve seen, not caring after a while that that would yield clues as to my region. Now I don’t have any qualms about saying I live in the Midwest.

    I’ve mentioned before, too, that I share a name with a movie star of another era. That was another example of my relaxing my privacy standards a bit after getting to know you guys better. I would not have done that early on, even though I felt like I knew a lot of you from having lurked for a year before joining the conversation.

    My oldest two arrows are on Facebook, but neither my husband nor I are on any social media, so I don’t have an online presence with my real name some place(s) and my pseudonym other places. Though that may change if I ever record something and put it on YouTube, or start a business website for my piano studio, both things I’ve seriously considered lately (well, the website more than YouTube).

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  14. I just think you need to respect the privacy of those who are not here. As Cheryl observed, this is an open forum and anyone can read what we write. Because I have become a public figure, there I am, but I try not to mention the names of anyone else. Figuring out my husband could probably be done in 2-3 clicks, but he’s used to it by now.

    I, too, always have a house sitter, but try to be careful about discussing if I’m gone for an extended period of time. It’s even easier to get my address than my husband’s name. 😦

    Once it’s posted, it’s up forever, which means I try to think about the reactions of family before I write anything, but alas, do not always succeed.

    Fortunately, like you all, I live in a happy problem-free zone without need of prayer . . .

    I’ll be in 1950s England today, if anyone comes looking for me! 🙂

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  15. I think that when a person lives in a city that you feel like anyone who wants access to personal info can have it. But at the same time, people don’t know their many neighbors. It’s a strange disconnect, a society that gets too personal on the one hand mixed with individuals that don’t know their neighbors’ names.

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  17. I get hummingbirds at a couple of my bushes — one year I had a humming bird’s nest in a tree right outside my kitchen window.

    For some reason, mom vanished or abandoned the nest, but I stayed away hoping she’d return. One of the eggs had hatched (the baby was dead) when I finally went out to check. 😦

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  19. I have no idea how many hummingbirds we have around here. Yesterday I saw four on one feeder. They were all relaxing and perching rather than hovering. Just about every evening we sit out on the deck and watch them in the hollyhocks and catmint. They fly right up to us and hover by our faces. I don’t know if we are being intimidated or greeted. They are quite friendly. They let us know if the feeders are empty though.

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  21. Well, the cat did once bring in a humming bird, sadly it was dead by the time I found it (she’d been batting it around on the floor — they weigh next to nothing) 😦 She’s not been hunting like that in a while, though, I suspect the lizards have all moved away from my backyard and she maybe isn’t quite as fast as she was when it comes to catching flying things.

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  22. Karen O, I just read your post about Mommy and Auntie. With the ending on those titles, it indicates being from a child’s point of view. A little confusion on any outsider’s reading, given your situation, would be welcome.

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  25. I have hummingbirds feeding from my scarlet runner beans. They do not like my feeders on the porch between the hanging baskets of flowers.

    Privacy is a personal preference. I work in the health care industry, so try to follow HIPPA practices through to this blog.

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  26. R Kessler, what does this mean? “I work in the health care industry, so try to follow HIPPA practices through to this blog.”

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  27. She doesn’t tell us her full name, where she lives, or where she works.

    My job is dependent on “putting myself out there” but that brings out its own brand of crazy. About a year ago a weirdo was calling real estate agents asking them about their shoes.

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  28. Karen, how about naming your family after literary characters drawn from various sources, or other descriptive names that aren’t names? I know one person who does that to keep herself and her family anonymous. One of her grandchildren is The Dread Pirate Grasshopper. 🙂

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  30. Sigh. My daughter did not get into medical school, so she’s looking at another program. When I asked if she was sure she wanted to go to medical school, she asked, “what else would I do?”

    I’ll fill you in more when we know if this is definite or not. It fits with who she is and I’ve just gotten off the phone with the program recruiter (trying to find out how much it costs! Yikes!). It sounds like a good fit–and most of their graduates go on to medical school . . . .

    So very much money, though . . . 😦

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  32. HIPPA is the federal privacy act that governs health care. You may not say anything about a case that could be identifiable to the actual person, without their written consent. I could tell so many stories, but chose not to, to ensure privacy.

    Michelle, in our system, many of the scribes have their applications in to med school. They gain valuable experience shadowing Dr’s all day long, while being paid.

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  33. On a different note, we got 2 dogs from the humane society. The female is a shepherd lab cross, about a year old. She is smart. Thus far her 2 things to work on are chasing cats and chasing the car when it leaves. I put her in a pen we have used for a kennel, but she can jump the fence (5ft).

    The little male, rottweiler / heeler cross, is just a sweet little guy, about 6 months old. I got after him 1 time for chickens and cats, and he leaves them alone. He is my shadow outside.

    My blue heeler was overwhelmed at first. He has only been used to an old dog. He likes to play with them. He is just sure he can hump the lab into submission. Not gonna happen.

    Neither of them are interested in the cows or goats.

    They love my son. Should be good companions till he leaves home.

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  34. R Kessler, when I wrote my first book, I told lots and lots of stories. In some cases I used real names of friends or family members (first and last), but in several cases I used stories but used not only fake names, but fake story details. I didn’t fake the basic “events,” but I changed male to female, changed a girl and her cousin to a brother and sister, and so forth. One person whose story I told in several different scenarios, I gave her a different name each time to make it less likely anyone would recognize who I was talking about. Other times I simply didn’t use a name at all.

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  35. RKessler, I know vaguely what HIPPA means, just not sure what you were saying about the connection to here. Kinda like if I said, “I take the way I communicate to authors and apply it to the way I communicate with you guys.” Oh. OK. How do you communicate with authors and how does that relate to communication with us?

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  37. Speaking of names in books. . .Today I finished reading an autobiography by J. Walter Juckett. He was a name in the paper industry as president, & later chairman of the board, of Sandy Hill Corporation, which manufactured paper machines & all sorts of other machines & whatnots used in the paper industry. He was involved in the national association (I think you’d call it) of Presbyterian men. He traveled overseas a lot in his career, & was on many boards & committees. But I’m guessing no one else here has heard of him, although it would be neat if someone had.

    His book, written in the very early 1980s, was kind of dry, & probably only of interest to people in his industry. (It was not, however, a vanity press publication, as I initially thought it might be.)

    The reason it was of interest to me is that my dad worked for Mr. Juckett for several years, & had a high regard for him. And, even more importantly, I knew that my dad’s name was mentioned in the book. It was only a brief mention in a list of names of men in the company who had worked on the sales of machines that year, but it was really neat to see his name. (Although, I burst out crying when I finally saw it, near the very end of the book.)

    And I liked that Mr. Juckett called him Jack K_________, not John. Dad was Jack to those who knew him.

    Dad had been a paper machine salesman for most of his career. That involved a lot of technical work, too, & visiting the mills for specs & such. He developed an excellent reputation in the industry for his integrity, & had customers follow him when he left one company & went to another.

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  40. That used to be an easy question Cheryl.
    But today you gave me four choices I have to make.
    I think I will stick with Burt Lancaster.
    Or, maybe Jimmy Stewart.
    or whoever got Jane Russell.

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  42. Thanx Cheryl. In just nine days I will be too old to change.
    I had my picture taken tonight for the Gate City Lions booklet. It’s terrible how bad I look.
    I never was good looking, but there’s no help at all now..

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  43. A busy Monday, following up on 2 people in their 20s who fell (authorities think) off the cliffs and were killed Sunday morning. I’m off Tuesday & Wednesday, but have an 8 a.m. (ouch, only one available) appointment with the vet for the dogs’ annual checkup-check-in. The rest of the day I plan to spend working in the house to get some more Salvation Army donations together.

    Wednesday is the trip up to northern LA to visit with my teacher friend who heads back to the classroom next Monday. Then it’s back to work Thursday & Friday.

    I’ve managed to collect quite a few recommendations for handymen today so I’ll also start making those calls to get some estimates going for my window frame repairs.

    I’m really getting tired of the house stuff, but it’s gotta get done. Not fun, though.

    My new paint color scheme idea for the outside is a caramel/warm maple, a (deeper) shade of ‘beige’ over all — highlighted with a dark reddish/burgundy/brown (or very dark spruce green?) for just the thinner, outside window trims & cream for the rest of the trim (porch overhang, rails, etc.) I’m getting too afraid of trying to find just the right shade of “green” for the overall color — it can go so wrong.

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