52 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 9-21-16”

  6. The Pups are enjoying the cooler mornings. I can leave the back door open when I let them out.

    AJ dis you get the photos I sent? I had some trouble with them on my end?

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  7. What the shorter days mean to me is that I have to get home before dark. Like when I was a kid.
    We have ants in this house. Not regular size ants, but tiny, about one mm long. I put poison out and it has reduced the number, but not eliminated them. I tell you that, to say this. I suspect ants had something to do with it.. Don’t know what.
    A couple of weeks ago, my disposal didn’t work. I tried all the things I knew to fix it, but couldn’t. It didn’t sit there and hum like when it’s clogged. No power was getting to it. I checked the circuit breakers, they were on. I was stumped. So? I called a repair man.
    He came in, took the cover off the switch, put the cover back on and it worked. He told me I had ants. I knew that. He charged $50.00.
    Yesterday, the disposal stopped working. I turned off the circuit breaker and removed the faceplate. While I had the faceplate off, the disposal started running. So I replaced the cover without doing anything. I don’t know, but I suspect ants have something to do with that.
    I did learn something important. The circuit breaker that controls the light over the sink does not control the disposal in the same location. An important bit of information. Could save my life. I thought I had cut off power to the disposal.

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  8. God has unusual ways of providing info we need, Chaos. Thankful He gave you that detail knowledge!

    I saw Art at 6:30 a.m., and he was sitting up and having ice water. He did not remember my visits in to see him late yesterday. He is doing well enough that he will probably go to a regular room today. Again, thank you for praying.

    The other family group in this waiting room showed me how to position two of the love seats together to form a “bed.” So I did get a reasonable amount of sleep overnight. The family is Christian and of similar political values so that has been pleasant. They also keep the television very quiet which is a surprise in these type public rooms.

    I can see Art again around 11:30.

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  10. I don’t like to have poison in the house. Especially with a cat and two dogs. What I did for my ant problem was mix half and half borax and powered sugar. I put it in small cups hidden. The ants think they have struck gold, haul it back to the nest and take care of my problem. I even use it outside in the front yard. (I can’t use it in back because of the “annie mules”.

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  12. I always wipe down the counters with straight white vinegar, same reason. Ant bait traps worked here, but had to be where the cat couldn’t get them.

    We had seven different varieties of ants in our kitchen in Hawai’i. I detest ants, and several times thought I would go mad dealing with them. The very worst was an ant nest–ite happened twice.

    Picture the horror of innocently opening the pantry door before dawn one school day and pulling out a box of cereal. When you opened it, instead of Cheerios you had a broiling circular, crawling ball of ants.

    I ran screaming into the back yard, overcome.

    Smart Kid #1 hurried in (my husband having already ridden off to work on his bicycle), to save me. When he saw the mess, he got out the vacuum cleaner and disposed of the creatures (and the bag into the trash).

    Only then did I return to the house, but I did not go into the kitchen. Kids had to fend for themselves that day.

    Shudder in remembrance.

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  13. Good Morning….I love autumn but I do not like the fact that it gets darker sooner…I lose my ability to drive to and from work…relying upon others is not my strength…..
    Mint….use mint to keep ants at bay…I have mint planted around the house…ants don’t like it nor do the mice…mint oil can be sprayed as well…

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  14. The walls in our Hawai’i shoebox shacks on the shores of Pearl Harbor did not have wall board. (You had to be careful about hammering nails to hang pictures–the end went into the next room, so the nails needed to be shallow and at an angle into the wall)

    The walls were simply boards with windows set in them and then you were outside. The jalousie windows could be opened horizontal and you only had the screen between you and nature.

    Electrical wires were strung through narrow wooden boxes along the foundation and then up to outlets–we had the bolts fastening the sills to the cement block foundation on the inside of the walls–and ants frequently could be found entering the house along/through the box strips, coming out the electrical outlets.

    (Just a reminder, this was senior officer military housing)

    The first month we lived in the “house” we used 37 tubes of caulk to caulk all the screens in place and block any holes in the foundation or walls. I refuse to use air conditioning unless absolutely necessary, so our home would be more vulnerable to insect invasion.

    In fact, we were swarmed by termites one night who found a tiny hole near the roof and created a scene out of another horror film. Stood in the lanai (which was also our dining room/music room/sewing room/computer room) with the vacuum hose in the air for a long time sucking away the termites.

    Termite season only came twice a year.

    We always had geckos living in the house–one or two–and finally gave up trying to get rid of them when someone pointed out they eat insects.

    I’ll never forget the night one of the kid spotted one in the lanai, “Wow, look how fat he is!”

    And then we wondered what he was eating . . .

    After awhile you got used to one chuckling when you stepped out of the shower.

    Don’t get me started on the scorpions and stinging centipede.

    Ah, paradise . . .

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  16. Michelle, the church I am in is the first where I have been close with the seniors who are dying off. The continuous loss of cherished personalities without replacement seems to be one of the worst aspects. Also, living with unrelenting pain is not a nice thought. The other fear relates to not having any more chances to help hearts discover the love, joy, hope, and peace found in Christ alone and in His salvation. Don’t we all wish to carry more people into heaven as our brothers and sisters in Christ?

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  17. Since I have been left myself, I fear leaving BG “alone”. (One of my biggest losses/regrets in life is not giving her a sibling to be with her when I am gone)/

    Beyond that, as I age I fear not having enough money in retirement to live comfortably and do for my child and one day my grandchildren (please Lord make sure there is more than one). I also fear loss of physical ability.
    As some of you know, I am rather short and I still climb on counter tops to reach things, I think nothing of going up a latter, or lifting something that is probably too heavy for me to do alone.

    The other BIG fear is that Mr. P will one day require more care and I am the least “nurse like” person I know. I tell everyone that God gave me a finite period of time to deal with dirty diapers and when it was up it was up. Other than spit up, thankfully BG only threw up twice as a child. Once I already had the trash can out in the kitchen and held her over it. The other time she was in bed with me so I threw the sheets in the wash and put new ones on the bed.

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  20. I don’t fear growing old and I don’t fear “being” dead. I wouldn’t say I fear anything but I’m not looking forward to the “getting” dead process. Based on my family history, it will probably be something related to the heart.

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  21. I worry most about being alone. Having little family around is a reality to many, many seniors who live here.

    One of my daughters had those tiny ants. They were in and all over a peanut butter jar. The landlord had to have a fumigator come in and spray. I think I would get a professional to eliminate the problem.

    My husband has a tester to make sure circuits have really shut down whatever wires he may need to work on. Too many times, wires are hot when someone thinks they are shut off. He worked with thousand of volts of electricity and never recommends an amateur fool around with it. Glad you recognized the truth, Chas.

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  23. Ants’ versatility is amazing to me. In one place I worked, the executive suite once had an ant problem . . . and it was eight or nine stories up. What takes ants up that high? Periodically we have ants here, worse than any place I’ve lived. In the backyard, we see starlings “anting.” Do you know what that is? If you see a group of starlings (sometimes other birds, too, but I usually just see starlings doing it) and each of them is grabbing something from the ground and then grooming its wings and shaking its body, it’s anting. They grab a live ant and rub it along their body; the ant tries to sting and instead discharges its poison among the feathers–and that acts as a handy-dandy insecticide against mites and other parasites the starling may want gone. And flickers eat mostly ants, so we see them fairly commonly in our backyard–one of my favorite birds, so I’m happy about that.

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  24. The header photo is of course great blue herons. My husband wanted to rest for a moment while we were at the “marsh” (where I saw the swans and dragonflies and so forth), and I went up on a little footbridge and looked over the water. In a few minutes, these two flew in and landed. Great blues are rather shy; you can’t usually get very close to them. But I was standing there still, and they didn’t come in all that close to where I was. The whole marsh was full of these birds, the most I’ve ever seen in one place, including four or so in one small pond. I suspect there’s a heronry nearby and most of them were juveniles newly fledged but not yet having left the region where they grew up. I think these two are juveniles; they have a bit of a scruffy look in some photos. That could just be where they are in the molting cycle, though.

    Behind them and to the left, I believe those are lily pads, but the water is low and so they are not floating on the surface but standing above it. They look different when they do that.

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  25. Michelle @ 11:37. I am old and I don’t fear anything. An observation. When you get past a certain age, seventy in my case all change is bad.
    We moved from Annandale because we wanted to when I was seventy. After that, all change was bad.
    Some bright moments when your grandchildren have their own children, etc. Going to a baby dedication on October. But that doesn’t affect us.
    For us, all change is bad.

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  26. Don’t ever let someone sell you something of the basis of “it doesn’t show dirt”. No matter what I do to the kitchen floor, it doesn’t look clean.

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  27. Janice, thanks for the good report on Art. I was thinking of you last night, all crumpled up on a love seat trying to sleep!

    I haven’t had ant issues at this house, but I do manage to get a few flies in the late summer, early fall when it gets more humid. Co-worker has the same issues and bought an electrified tennis racket with which to zap them. I just use an old-fashioned fly swatter, but I hate flies in my kitchen, ugh! !

    Moving into my 60s seemed to change my outlook a lot — suddenly, ‘old age’ seems just around the corner (because it actually is just around the corner). For me, work (I think) keeps me younger feeling. I have a friend who had such a huge inheritance from her folks that she retired early, but she seems to always have so many physical ailments. Aside from chronic neck pain, I still feel (physically) OK, though not as good as I felt when I was younger. 🙂

    On another topic, I found this interesting in my morning readings (from a daily devotional based on “The Christian in Complete Armour” by Gurnall):

    “But God can change the scene of public affairs as quickly as He can change personal situations. Maybe authority smiles on the church right now; yet it might frown again soon. ‘Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea’ (Acts 9:31) — It was a blessed time for the saints. But it did not last long … James the brother of John died by the sword and Peter was thrown into prison. The entire church was driven into a corner to pray in the night; and those who had had rest on every side now were threatened by violent death at every turn.”

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  28. I cannot say I fear anything about growing older…resting in Him in all things is truly a most blessed dwelling place….
    I would say I have a sense of dread if I should ever become totally dependent upon someone else for my care…that would just totally do me in I think…..

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  30. That’s two questions, Michelle. So, here are my answers.

    QoD1: I fear getting dementia and not recognizing my family.

    QoD2: I fear the dying process. Death is no fear because of the promise that I will be with God then. But getting there scares me. I don’t know if I want to go suddenly or have time to get my affairs in order.

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  31. Kbells @ 12:07. That happened to my mother.
    Elvera is getting dementia. They tell me that it doesn’t have to degenerate into Alzheimer’s
    But it could. She still has her sweet personality. Every day she checks with me what day it is and what she is supposed to do. Usually she doesn’t have to do anything.
    ‘But she needs to do something to keep going. She watches lots of TV. Usually FoxNews.

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  32. I don’t have time to listen to this, but just spotted it on Twitter & it sounds good — Michael Horton, radio discussion

    https://www.whitehorseinn.org/show/heaven-according-to-scripture-1/

    ____________________________________

    “As we have seen in the past two programs, there appears to be a lot of confusion about heaven and the afterlife, yet this does not appear to be limited to the world outside of the church. As we’ll see in this program, there’s a lot of confusion even inside the church about the true nature of heaven. On this program the hosts will contrast contemporary misunderstandings with the biblical teaching about our ultimate resurrection hope.
    ______________________________________

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  33. Unlike our school teacher/batman, I don’t have any affairs so none of that to organize. No fear of death but not real comfortable with the act of dying. But it has happened successfully to a lot of people so I suspect I will get it done. And then!

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  34. And my thought on dementia is that it seems to be harder on those around than the person with it. The person tends to live in old memories and is not so aware of what is missing.

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  35. Mumsee, they know something is missing. Mama went through a spell where she paced the house almost 24/7 moving and rearranging things. I had to quietly replace everything breakable with little plastic toys. It was as though she was looking for something.

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  36. Mumsee, I made that same comment to New Jersey Lawyer once and she told me not so. Her mother had died from Alzheimer’s and I think her mother suffered. It doesn’t always have to be so.
    I had an aunt by marriage who died from Alzheimer’s. She eventually forgot how to swallow. I classmate most recently took care of her grandmother until she had to go into a care facility. She wrote of her many (mis) adventures with Golden Girl. Mostly she said it was like having a toddler in the house that still demanded Yes Ma’am and No Ma’am.

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  39. I know not all of you share my love of Country Music and I do not like the song Country Roads mainly because I cannnot stand John Denver but take a look at this celebration of 50 years of the CMA awards.

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  40. Strange they would end that with Dolly, who is definitely Tennessee.
    We had a woman, about our age, at work who was from West Virginia. Some called her “Mountain Momma”. She was a secretary. She enjoyed the good natured joshing and repartee.
    Her husband was a GS-14 in another department.

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  41. Ki, I saw that video and loved it. Strange that things have come full circle. I’ve never been a fan of country music. so when I was young my Dad drove me crazy wit his Charlie Pride and now my son with Jason Aldean. 🙂

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  43. The dragonfly is an eastern pondhawk. I thought its marking quite unusual. I saw several that day, but I’d never seen them before. With this coloring, it is a female or “an immature male.” Who knew that dragonflies could have molted out of their immature nymph cycles to have wings . . . but still be “immature”?

    By the way, if you live in the Midwest and you’re interested in nature, a really great book is the Kaufman Field Guide to Nature of the Midwest. You still want your field guides of birds and butterflies and whatever else is most important to you, because it doesn’t have absolutely everything, but in one book it has insects, birds, fish, lizards, plants, even minerals and constellations and other things you don’t expect to see in a field book. Before I decided to buy it, as a test I looked through the butterflies and looked for the species I’ve seen in my backyard–and it had them all. That was good enough to tell me it is moderately thorough. And I’m not inclined to buy books on lizards or insects or mushrooms or whatever, but since it has those too, it’s a great book to grab and see if what I just spotted is in there.

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  48. The writing is done. 25 pages of permission requests to work through over the next week and I need to chose photos and start on those. I even wrote the acknowledgments today, the dedication and the table of contents. God is good, I’m undone.

    Thank you again for all your help.

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  50. If I remember correctly, this dragonfly is an amberwing–yes, eastern anberwing. It’s amazing how many colors the creatures come in. It’s on a “finished” Queen Anne’s lace flower.

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