44 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-11-16”

  4. I tried to “like” Aj’ s comment just to let him know I saw it. Then, rather than the “like” I got this notice that I had to sign in. So! This is what happened.
    Thanx Aj.

    Liked by 3 people

  5. Wow, great day in the morning we get to see Chas again!!!
    Morning Chas.
    I think probably writing through the death of Biddy when she got to know her so well was also difficult for Michelle. This was not fiction. We are all going to be blessed by this book.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Another great header. It’s a bird festival week with all of Cheryl’s picture book yesterday in addition to the headers. When my brother was here on Tues., it had rained a lot and the driveway had puddles of water. Three doves landed to enjoy refreshment. It was special to see them. Wish I had a photo of them to share. A word picture will have to do.

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  9. As is my custom, I usually come here and sign in, look at yesterday’s late entries and then visit other sites early in the morning.
    In passing, I noticed on another site, a woman named “Muriel”. Like Elvera, I have known only one other Muriel in the world. I was in love with Muriel E. in high school. We corresponded briefly when I was in the, AF. But lost track.
    It turned out well.

    Liked by 3 people

  11. 6Arrows and I think Kathaleena, you have both had “frozen shoulders” at some point. I told you the massage therapist and my former corpsman (Michelle thinks Navy Corpsmen are the best) diagnosed me with bursitis. In my research after hobbling around with my left hip hurting for a while, I found it was caused from too much acid or not enough acid in your system (I can’t remember) I also discovered if it is in your shoulder they call it frozen shoulder. . I went to see the “witch doctor” at the local health food store and she sold me Enzymatic Therapy (brand name) Acid-A-Cal Formula an acidifying bland for healthy pH balance. I have been taking it since last Saturday and it seems to have made a difference.
    I wanted to let you know in case you would like to try it.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Wow, Peter, you better get in there and kiss Mrs. L, D1, D2, D3 and any granddaughters fast!

    It looks like you’ve turned into a toad!

    I was crying because I finished the book–and yes, because Biddy died in the end. (Actually, that wasn’t a surprise). I think I’m going to write about the emotions of the end for my blog tomorrow, if I can sort them out.

    I sat and sobbed–really sobbed–for awhile, walked downstairs and announced, “the end.” and collapsed into the blue rocker to cry some more.

    My bewildered husband hugged me and said, “this is cause to celebrate!”

    I nodded, and slunk into the kitchen where I stared at the refrigerator interior, wandered over to the pots and pans, stared out the window, pulled noodles from the cupboard and finally said, “I can’t cook dinner. How about Chinese?”

    I felt totally undone. 15 months of work on this project, 3.5 years with the Chambers duo–more than enough work to keep me busy for some time yet, and then next year, which I suspect will be crazy.

    And the book doesn’t even come out until fall 2017.

    But the biggest, most emotional part of the work is finished, the rough draft. That is huge and represents a lot of hours, papers, googling, etc.

    The fun already has begun. After dinner, I went to my son’s house and we watched their tape from the night before of women’s gymnastics. The adorables danced (in front of the TV) in their Frozen nightgowns, he served me ice cream and it was good.

    When I got home (my husband had come home directly after dinner because he had a business phone call to China), I ran the macro on the entire manuscript and worked for an hour.

    I love this part–editing, cleaning up, reorganizing, redirecting, rewriting and making the manuscript stronger. It’s all good and I have more than enough to keep me busy and involved for some time to come!

    Thank you all for listening to me babble about Biddy and Oswald over all these years, at this point. I appreciate it. See you in the acknowledgements! 🙂

    Liked by 9 people

  14. Congratulations, Michelle. All that perseverance is great to ‘watch’. It is interesting and fun to follow your journey.

    Interesting, Kim. I have never heard that about frozen shoulder from anyone. Glad you have been helped.

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  16. No, Michelle. That is not a picture of me, but one I took of a toad that lived in the entrance area of Mark Twain Cave until a snake got it. Or we think it was a snake, because the toad was there all Spring and early summer and disappeared the day we found a snake in the entrance of the cave.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Perhaps we should all celebrate with you Michelle. Fifteen months. I know a great independently owned bookstore where you can have a book signing. Lot’s of local churches.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. That is so exciting, michelle! And such an intense experience. Well done. You earned that ice cream.

    Kim’s comments made me realize my leg doesn’t hurt anymore. 🙂 I hadn’t even noticed what was bothering me in one of my legs (hips?) several days ago had gone away.

    Had a good visit yesterday with my friend, we went through her 4 (or was it 5) Alaska vacation scrapbooks, had an early dinner out, wandered through the farmer’s market (boy, it’s hot up where she lives, though), went to Lowe’s where I picked up some more house paint combo ideas.

    It also was one of those visits where I became aware of a couple of my own sinful attitudes of the heart (tumbling out of my mouth as proof, of course, ouch-ouch-ouch) that clearly need to be addressed. 😦

    And it’s back to work for 2 days today and tomorrow — Saturday someone is coming to check under my house to make sure some cracks on the outside don’t mean something serious is going on with the foundation (please no 😦 ). She comes at 8 a.m. and said it will take her about an hour. And my friend C, meanwhile, has been begging me to come see her after that — but I also have a Salvation Army pickup scheduled for early in the week and really need to get some more bags together for that. Saturday’s my one main shot at getting those kinds of things done right now.

    Liked by 1 person

  25. so….do you know if it is legal in your state for adopted siblings to get married? They are back to wanting to get married. Which I don’t care as genetically, they are not going to mess up their children.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. I don’t think there is a rule for non blood relatives. I googled how many generations down before cousins can marry. I found several states that allow first cousins to marry. Thankfully my state was not on the list because we are scorned for too many other things.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Because I need a reason to laugh today…

    AN OLD WOMAN WALKED UP AND TIED HER OLD MULE TO THE HITCHING POST.
    AS SHE STOOD THERE, BRUSHING SOME OF THE DUST FROM HER FACE AND CLOTHES, A YOUNG GUNSLINGER STEPPED OUT OF THE SALOON WITH A GUN IN ONE HAND AND A BOTTLE OF WHISKEY IN THE OTHER. THE YOUNG GUNSLINGER LOOKED AT THE OLD WOMAN AND LAUGHED, “HEY OLD WOMAN, HAVE YOU EVER DANCED?”

    THE OLD WOMAN LOOKED UP AT THE GUNSLINGER AND SAID, “NO,… I NEVER DID DANCE… NEVER REALLY WANTED TO.”

    A CROWD HAD GATHERED AS THE GUNSLINGER GRINNED AND SAID “WELL, YOU OLD BAG, YOU’RE GONNA DANCE NOW,” AND STARTED SHOOTING AT THE OLD WOMAN’S FEET.

    THE OLD WOMAN PROSPECTOR — NOT WANTING TO GET HER TOE BLOWN OFF –STARTED HOPPING AROUND. EVERYBODY WAS LAUGHING. WHEN HIS LAST BULLET HAD BEEN FIRED, THE YOUNG GUNSLINGER, STILL LAUGHING, HOLSTERED HIS GUN AND TURNED AROUND TO GO BACK INTO THE SALOON.

    THE OLD WOMAN TURNED TO HER PACK MULE, PULLED OUT A DOUBLE-BARRELED SHOTGUN, AND COCKED BOTH HAMMERS.
    THE LOUD CLICKS CARRIED CLEARLY THROUGH THE DESERT AIR, AND THE CROWD STOPPED LAUGHING IMMEDIATELY.

    THE YOUNG GUNSLINGER HEARD THE SOUNDS, TOO, AND HE TURNED AROUND VERY SLOWLY. THE SILENCE WAS ALMOST DEAFENING. THE CROWD WATCHED AS THE YOUNG GUNMAN STARED AT THE OLD WOMAN AND THE LARGE GAPING HOLES OF THOSE TWIN BARRELS.

    THE BARRELS OF THE SHOTGUN NEVER WAVERED IN THE OLD WOMAN’S HANDS, AS SHE QUIETLY SAID, “SON, HAVE YOU EVER KISSED A MULE’S ASS?”

    THE GUNSLINGER SWALLOWED HARD AND SAID, “NO M’AM… BUT I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO.

    THERE ARE FIVE LESSONS HERE FOR ALL OF US:

    1 – Never be arrogant.
    2 – Don’t waste ammunition.
    3 – Whiskey makes you think you’re smarter than you are.
    4 – Always make sure you know who has the power.
    5 – Don’t mess with old people; they didn’t get old by being stupid.

    Liked by 4 people

  29. I’m getting the oils changed at the car wash. Here’s a QOD: do I want the gasoline additive to clean my fuel injectors?

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  32. All right, I looked at the votes, and selected any photo with four or more votes as a finalist. Six fit that category. I’ll also include the three that got three votes each, and a couple of them that are my special favorites, in a second stack for my husband to look at as well, but more than half of them are completely “out,” which is helpful. I’m guessing we’ll narrow it down from the stack that got at least four votes, but since he will see the photos in person and he is an artist, I’m including a few more.

    Of the nine photos that got at least three votes, six are bird photos, one is a butterfly, one is tree blossoms, and one is the reflections in a creek. Birds are bluebird, goldfinch, male cardinal (two had at least three votes), flicker, and re-winged blackbirds.

    Thank you all!

    Liked by 2 people

  34. Chas, yes 🙂

    Cheryl, sorry, crazy morning with 3 stories so I didn’t get to the photos

    We really need more people where I work

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  36. The winners: For the 8 x 10 we went with the peacock and the dragonfly; my husband just raves about that peacock, and I think it’s exquisite on metallic paper with a gold mat. And the dragonfly needs the larger size to showcase the amazing lacy details of its wing.

    For the 5 x 7, we ended up choosing five, and they don’t match up exactly with the top favorites of the votes, but several of them were top favorites. (My husband said, for example, that the flicker in flight is just not a sharp enough photo.He’s right, but I adore that photo anyway.) We have got the bluebird, the magnolia blossom, the young red-winged blackbird on cattails, the barn (my husband loves barns, and we both love the way that looks like a black-and-white photo until you see the splash of red of the barn), and the butterfly that everyone liked. A couple more were “almost,” but the mat didn’t really work with it and I didn’t have the right color mat, or I need to crop it differently, and those are photos I may end up entering next year once the issue was corrected.

    Here’s the link to the final choices: https://www.picaboo.com/?share=0be2f76818e285a9e61276a742dec024&version=787407&siteID=ViaPreview&utm_source=trg&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=shareproj

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  37. PS I zoomed in closer to show more of each photo and less of the mat, and gave each photo its own spread.

    Thank you all again! My husband enjoys looking through them and helping out, but narrowing down the field gave him half as many to sort through. He ended up with about ten he really liked, and from them we chose the final ones.

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  38. We were rear-ended last Thursday. When someone finally called here on Monday my husband said we would need a rental car, since the trunk is open to the elements and we cannot drive it in the rain. We have had lots of rain. We have not heard from the insurance agent or anyone since. I am not a happy camper.

    Liked by 2 people

  40. Mumsee, it is illegal for adopted siblings to marry here. I can think of good reasons for such a law, one being that sexual abuse can occur between adoptive siblings (such a case is recorded here: http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2012/04/a-difficult-journey/) and it is possible that one of the adoptive siblings is being coerced into marriage, having been abused systematically by the other adoptive sibling. That is especially likely in the case of adopted siblings where there is a large age difference or other kind of uneven power dynamic. Also, if the children have been adopted siblings from a very early, then their relationship will be that of brother and sister, and to break that bond and substitute it for one of husband and wife could cause serious emotional damage.

    The two in your household are nearly the same age, and were adopted as older child/adolescent. Thus they do not have that sibling attachment and the relationship has not been one of power and coercion either.

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  41. Kim, not even the Mosaic law prohibited marriage between first cousins. I think there is a problem if the first cousins were raised close enough to form emotional attachments similar to siblings, but otherwise, I do not think there is anything wrong with marrying a first cousin, though it might be unadvisable from a medical standpoint (and I could never bring myself to marry even a third cousin, much less a first). I’ve been thinking through the changes from Cain and Seth marrying their sisters to the prohibition in the Law of marriage between close family members and why that is. One thing I have been thinking is the different dynamics in the relationships between husband and wife, parent and child, sibling and sibling. They are each qualitatively different, and cannot be confused without perverting the relationship. In I Timothy, Paul tells Timothy the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters. In cultivating such an attitude towards the women of the church, Timothy was mentally eliminating the possibility of being tempted into a wrong sexual relationship with them, for anyone who considers an incestuous relationship is extremely perverted. The pastors who have affairs with women in the church are not treating those women as sisters in Christ.

    Liked by 1 person

  43. Yes, the police were called and we have filled out forms for the official record. We may have to start calling and calling until we get something going. There have been some severe storms in the area, so I am sure the companies are swamped. Still, we need some answers and I consider this very bad customer service. It doesn’t make me ever want to buy their insurance for sure.

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