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

  1. Beautiful red barn!
    Hopeful for a peaceful day, night, and tomorrow against the odds. It is in God’s hands and He knows there are still believers in the land.

    It is in the 40s here so the house is chilly. I did not stay with Karen. I think she is trying to be brave. I am trying to not be sad.

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  2. She was messing around with the milk and cereal, I was messing with the juice and coffee and we were getting in each other’s way and tempers were getting short. Suddenly She says. “You know, we have lots to be thankful for.”
    We had a nice breakfast. Same old thing, but nice.

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  3. Time for some sleep here, but I will have the same old breakfast in the morning. 🙂
    Just had to go let the other gal in. I didn’t know she was out and put the chain across the door. Whoops.

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  4. Good Morning…such a lovely photo to see first thing here at the blog…I do so love barns and this one is especially nice…makes me miss home ❤
    It has been consistently in the 50's and 60's around here…I miss winter!! Continued prayers for your friend Janice…and for you as you walk along the path with her…friends are a true joy in the journey…
    Chas I just love hearing small snippets of life with you and TSWITW….all the aggravations, frustrations and annoyances of this life are overcome by our love for the Father and for one another…and thankfulness….we all need those reminders and I especially needed reminding of it this morning!
    Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
    And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!

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  5. Hill should be in Paris about now, due in San Francisco at 8:30 tonight.

    I woke up at 3:30 and did not go back to sleep. It will be a very long day for me. Hopefully Stargazer will drive me to the airport– my husband has a Bible study.

    Prayer is a safe trip for Hill today and my daughter tomorrow. She flies to Rochester NY through Baltimore and is nervous about being so close to DC the day after the election.

    I guess my sister-in-law flies home to CA from India today, so lots of loved ones in the air.

    Oh, and while I thought I finished writing my book last night, I thought of some things to change and add this morning at 3:45. You see the problem . . .

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  6. That barn was one I photographed from the car as we drove past on our anniversary trip. I’ve gotten quite a bit of practice shooting barns from the road, though sometimes the pics don’t turn out, since a shot from a moving car through a windshield that may or not be clean, dry, and non-reflecting is iffy. . . . anyway, this one is a simple barn, not elaborate or beautiful, but the lighting and color are just right, and the fencing, newly harvested field, and row of subtly colored autumn trees all help to keep the barn the center of interest and yet part of a whole scene. (The trees in the background show what we mostly saw on our anniversary trip this year, instead of the vivid color we see most years and that we had at home. We were there just a few days later than we usually are down there, but trees were still colorful at home when we returned, so I think they somehow just didn’t have a lot of color this year.)

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  8. KBells, We learned long ago that we were incompatible in the kitchen. We don’t work well together because I’m anxious to “get it done, and on to the next thing.” She has infinite patience. We don’t shop well together either. But there comes a time in life when things change and we have to accommodate them.

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  9. I like the barn pic and the shade of red is nice. Our fall foliage is not nearly as pronounced as in rainier years. We have drought conditions right now. Forest fires on Signal Mtn, Mowbray Mtn, and Lookout Mtn. are said to be contained. But the smoke pouring off of Mowbray still looked ominous yesterday.

    We live on a ridge across from Signal Mtn, with many acres of dense woods behind our house, all the way down to the valley. You can tell the wildlife has been disturbed. The coyotes are yapping more at night…and they are closer. They’ve been spotted in the yard across from the house next to ours. We have lots of dogs in the neighborhood too, but none of them roam (fortunately), although one cat does. Our neighbor to the right won’t even let his two labs go down in the woods any more, as the coyotes are said to hunt in packs.

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  10. Packing is among the things that biologists are watching as behaviors trend in new ways among coyotes — especially urban coyotes that are now so habituated to living next to people (which, in turn, gets passed on to their pups so the bolder behavior becomes more and more reinforced with each generation).

    I interviewed a woman who lives with her husband in the Hollywood Hills a few months back and she said when they first moved there they loved the wildlife and seeing glimpses of the then-ghostly coyotes, always keeping their distance. Now, she said, the behavior has turned. Her husband was bitten when a coyote tried to snatch their medium-sized dog that he was walking on leash one morning. And she was cornered on a dead end street by several coyotes as she was walking the dogs another time. She was terrified. Thankfully, neighbors came to the rescue and were able to chase the pack away, but she was completely rattled by it.

    She said they’re so conflicted about it, they both love animals and moved into the hills partly for that reason. But now she said the coyotes are getting into yards and they’re fearful about even leash walking their dog.

    Well, I digress. But get me started on coyotes, and you know what happens. 🙂

    Beautiful barn picture! I love barns, my friends in NY live on a very picturesque piece of farmland complete with oxen and red barns — I had fun taking photos there last time I visited. And Iowa has some wonderful landscapes with barns amid, of course, all those fields of corn. 🙂

    So the lead-test guy comes between 8 and 8:30 this morning to check out where the new windows and door will go (government requires lead tests so workers can prepare as needed when they do the install). After that I have a list of errands to take care of, including voting (sample ballot is all filled out, should be fairly quick) before heading in for a long almost-all-nighter at work beginning at 5 or 6 p.m. 😦

    The day after election night is always the worst, everyone drags in at around 11 a.m. or noon faced with having to somehow write coherent followups on their local races.

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  11. I rarely like to work in the kitchen with anyone. When I have guests over, I do nearly all the food preparation before they come. When the wife inevitably asks if she can help with anything, I either just say “No thanks” or “You can cut up the banana, if you like” (a really quick and easy task). Afterward, they always ask if they can help clean up, but all I do is clean off plates a bit, put leftovers in the fridge, and stack the dishes. Some women have a really hard time with that, but only once did I ever have anyone insist we must do these dishes now. I prefer to leave the dishes and go in the other room and talk, and I tackle the dishes the next day. The focus can then be on the guest(s), not the task. If I am a guest, I’m willing to help, but usually I feel weird in another woman’s kitchen, and frankly I’m always relieved when they say, “No, thank you; it’s already about ready.”

    One of my (step)daughters was visibly tense if someone would even walk into the kitchen when she was cooking, so I learned early on to give her space. I wouldn’t even sit and read in the living room, because we could see each other, and I avoided going in for a glass of water or anything. But when she was courting, she would make a meal and her fiance would help her (in our kitchen), and sometimes her sister would be in there, too, and we even ended up with all five of us in the kitchen talking sometimes. But it really was just not comfortable for her at all at first, and I respected that. (It wasn’t just me; she’d get stressed if her dad or sister went in there, too.)

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  12. One of my relatives has often told the story of living in the Hollywood Hills on one of those narrow streets below the Hollywood sign and looking at the observatory. He let the cat out one night 25 years ago and heard the death screech shortly thereafter.

    It’s bothered him ever since. 😦

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  13. In Biddy research news because these stories are so much fun, I did a final scour of Google last week and turned up a photo of daughter Kathleen in a Decision Magazine article.

    So, I sent an email to Decision asking, on a long shot, if they might still have the photograph.

    A very pleasant woman wrote back and said no, it volunteered to scan it and play with photoshop, which she did. I got it yesterday.

    (Kathleen was about my age in the photo. I showed it to my husband. Which one of us looks good for this age? He laughed and got the right answer.)

    My Decision pal suggested I google the photographer since she had the name.

    Clifford Shirley turned up immediately– a photog who lives in Sweden.

    (Does that even make sense?)

    I wrote him anyway, hunted around a little more and discovered he studied photography in Suffolk and is a little older than me.

    He wrote back today to say, yes he took the photo, but oddly, doesn’t remember anything about Kathleen, nor does he have the negative. Sorry.

    I forwarded that email to my Decision pal who wanted to hear the end of the story, then . . .

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  14. We got our car in the shop, finally, for the airbag and recheck on previous work. On our way home, Art and I shopped at Sam’s Club. I loved shopping with him. I suppose it reminds me of when we were first married and every weekend we drove an hour to his parent’s home and carried his elderly mother grocery shopping. The trouble with that was we had to carry her to about four grocery stores so she could get the good deals at each store. I was patient about it at first, but finally I just could not do all that on top of having to do our own grocery shopping.

    I like grocery shopping with Art because I can keep him from overbuying. I am glad for him to be there and decide what he would enjoy having.

    Because of dropping the car off, I did not have my usual breakfast. I am now having my second cup of coffee with organic blue corn chips. I guess it is more a brunch snack and a skipped breakfast.

    Yesterday at the tag office, the clerk was surprised I had every detail ready in what I handed him to process. He bragged on me for being so organized. I said it’s the only thing in my life that is organized, and he did not believe me. I told him he not only made my day, but he made my life!

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  15. What? You want to hear the end of the story? 🙂

    Not totally here yet, but my Decision pal said, “Let’s just throw it out there and see if Decision LONDON might have the picture.” She’s written to her colleagues.

    Gee, I wonder what will happen next? Lol

    (If nothing else, the book is now on Decision’s radar, which is always a good thing for marketing a book.)

    I can’t control this book, as I’ve already demonstrated time and again!

    Off to teach Bible study. I’m sure something else will happen to me before the day is done!

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  17. I had no idea coyotes could get that aggressive! We have discussed the idea of getting a gun, or a pellet gun or, my personal preference, a really good sling shot. All of our neighbors are well armed. We also have motion sensor lighting off the screened in back porch, but it came with the house and needs to be replaced.

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  18. I like having teamwork in the kitchen. I first experienced that when making meals with apartment mates. I was the biscuit maker. Each person did their part. I enjoy making Thanksgiving foods when we ach do our part. Art has learned to trim Brussel sprouts and put the X in the thick stem end to make it cook evenly. And once I got him to make a crustless pumpkin pie. He normally only boils eggs as his kitchen duty. I don’t think he can properly crack a raw egg. I probably did that for him on the pumpkin pie.

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  20. Late Happy Birthday to Donna!

    Hubby’s interview went well. He thought the county manager was a very nice secretary. We are so excited at the possibility of him being home every evening.

    I am going to vote this afternoon, and then go to Albuquerque for the WinterJam concert. Better to be singing praises to God than worrying about election results. 1 daughter, son, and at least 4 of the grands are going with me.

    My mother has called every day this week to change plans on her trip to my daughter’s and for Thanksgiving. We finally made a plan to get her next Wednesday morning, and stay till Friday after Thanksgiving. Now, I realize I have to work night shift on Wednesday. Driving 328 miles prior to working 12 hrs is not smart. Another change in plans, this time, my fault.

    My brother and his son, from the Seattle area, are coming in the Monday before Thanksgiving. So looking forward to the family time together. Janice’s post makes me anxious to see everyone and start cooking.

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  21. I left my house at 7:15. It took 25 minutes to make a less than 5 minute drive to the polling place. It took 30 minutes to get through the line to vote. A little after 8 am over 500 people had voted there.
    I held my nose and voted as did most of the people who were in the line with me.

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  22. How fun, Michelle. 🙂

    Lead guy was here, found some lead in some places, not in others. I had him check the south windows too, just in case I can’t find someone to repair the wood on those and I have to consider replacing them. But I really, really want to avoid having to “go there.”

    By nature, coyotes have been shy around people, keeping their distance (which is why they’re so rarely seen). But after several generation in the city, they lose that fear — they quickly realize the worst that can happen to them is getting an arm wave and a few shouts — and then they come in closer and closer. Their pups are taught there’s little to fear from the humans. I’ve been alarmed by how many stories I’ve seen (and written as part of larger pieces on coyotes) about coyotes getting over very tall fences (up to 8 feet in one case) to attack pets in backyards. That’s way too close for comfort.

    Carol lives right at the base of the Hollywood Hills (in the shadow of the Hollywood sign) on Franklin & Gower so we’ve wandered up and around in the hills on several occasions. Beautiful older homes and quaint, narrow streets — although it gets complicated when a car is coming from the other direction.

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  23. 😦 My house, I don’t think, has ever looked worse. Kind of embarrassing, I have to keep explaining to anyone who has to come in the impending bathroom remodel, closet & garage clean outs that are ongoing … Ugh.

    I’m going to wait to vote a little later in the morning — voting at 1st Pres church a few blocks away — in hopes of avoiding a wait. Sounds like a lot of lines across the country today.

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  24. Cheryl, that is an enlightening article about sleepovers. I feel fortunate that I never had a bad experience with the number of times I spent the night with friends or cousins. I feel blessed. We did have an older boy in our neighborhood who was a molester. I think once when I was young and my brother had to go to the hospital because of his diabetes that my parents left me with that family. It was a number of years later that the boy was outed as the molester of girls in our neighborhood. I hope nothing happened that night at that house two doors from our house. If it did, I have no memory of it.

    Our son did lots of camps and camping with Scouts, but we did not do sleepovers. He had asthma so triggers in other places were a concern. I did worry about his asthma with camping, but felt Scout leaders would handle problems properly. And at church camp, they had a nurse on duty full time. Also we were so engaged in caring for my mom that there was not a lot of time for friends and sleepovers.

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  25. I’m so glad our coyotes are still shy and illusive. As are our wolves 🙂

    Donna, my house is a mess and there is no excuse – I did get a good start on tidying up yesterday though.

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  26. Well, the wolves probably keep the coyotes in their place to some degree. In the city they have no natural predators, not even man.

    (One article I read said that coyote populations really boomed due to the widespread wolf hunting in the past, they essentially took their place in many areas where the wolves became extinct or nearly so).

    We do have mountain lions that are making a comeback and again gaining a foothold in the local hillsides so maybe that’ll be the coyotes’ comeuppance 🙂 Although I don’t think cougars are any better news for us or our pets …

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  27. Election day. I am taking an unscientific poll here with my students. I have a picture of Trump, one of Clinton and one of myself. They are to write their names under the picture of their chosen candidate (it’s how I take roll). So far, Trump is ahead but I am beating Ms. Clinton.

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  29. When I last spoke with Karen, she was getting ready to go home. She is still in A Fib. I am without my car today since it is in the shop so I can’t go see her.

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  30. I made it through my errands pretty quickly — voted, dropped a package off for return, went to the hardware store to get a new garage lock, stopped off at LA Building & Safety to sign off final form on the roof job inspection and picked up some things at the grocery store. And it’s not even noon yet.

    So I think I’m going to try to read and nap for the afternoon before going to work.

    (I lucked out at the polling place, only 1 guy in front of me when I arrived — but by the time I left, there was a small line forming.)

    I voted for a couple Democrats, only because they were running against another Dem and there was no Republican to choose. Sometimes I leave those contests blank, but in these cases I voted for the less liberal of the two in each race.

    One of them was a race I covered and the one candidate told me during the interview that he’d pledge to work with Republicans and had some GOP endorsements, so that’s probably as good as it gets for us (I’ve known his opponent for ages, I covered his first political run for school board way back when — nice guy but very very liberal).

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  31. I was conflicted on a couple of the propositions, could have gone either way, but picked “Yes” or “No” and was done with it, right or wrong.

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  33. Well, I got it again at the polls. Lived here nearly twenty years and voted regularly. Small town.

    “Oh! So you are Mrs. F….! Hi Mike! Now, I know A…, and J ( I hear she is doing well up there in Moscow).., and A… (isn’t he overseas now?) and the one who plays football. And A…. Oh, and M… and M…. Oh, and those outside waiting are T… and T… and M….! I imagine most of them will be in today.

    Nope, they have moved on but will mostly be voting wherever they are or already have.

    Well, it is good to meet their mom, finally!

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  34. Cheryl, I don’t like guests in the kitchen when I’m cooking either. I’m mostly okay with my husband in the kitchen – he’s usually just doing his own thing (or getting a start on the dishes – don’t mind that at all). I think my step mom has learned – she now stays out of my way and asks from the living room if there’s anything she can do to help and now takes no for an answer when before she would just help and that would just make me all tense.

    I do like it when my children offer to help when it’s a big dinner like Christmas or Thanksgiving – I can usually give them something to do that keeps them out of my way, but still helps in the preparation.

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  37. We’re a ‘small’ tight-knit community within LA so I usually know people at the polls too. Today it was the woman who had an antique store in town with her husband. I bought an outdoor bench from them after I moved into this house – it sits on my patio

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  38. Re the new barn photo: I didn’t actually remember sending it (though it is one of mine), so I can’t say specifically why I did, or if I meant to send a different one instead. . . . but that’s what much of Indiana looks like right now, bales of hay, harvested fields, old barns.

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  42. lol. I’d like a barn too, but it’s not going to happen. :–)

    I lived in Indiana twice—from the 7th grade-12th; and then again in my adulthood, for a total of about 8 years. I can remember taking long drives in the country. I could drive for an hour and not see a single house—well maybe one off the road waaay back in the distance. I would go out like that when I wanted solitude, just to think. It was kind of a mental safety valve. Then when I moved to CT I tried to do the same. I drove for hours thinking “where is the countryside?”. I never did find it, not in the same way. But I learned to find peace and beauty in the relative bustle. I do love that about our country.

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  43. I have a lovely barn. Phos’s dad built if for us. And a little one that my husband and children built. Another one burned down while the caretaker was taking care. But they are functional western barns. Pole barns with some tin. Exactly what I need and want. They store lots of hay and rabbits and children and such.

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  44. We have a barn right over the property line between our backyard & the neighbor’s land (which is on two sides of us – to one side & along the back), but I don’t think it’s used for more than storage these days. And there’s our mini-barn (a shed made to look like a little barn). The neighbors also have a stable-type of barn for their cows. Or maybe it’s just a stable?

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  45. I drove by a long line of movie trucks today, more filming of “A Wrinkle in Time,” someone said.

    My cat and dogs would love their own barn. I saw a DIY log cabin you can build in your backyard on a website a few days ago. Wish I were handy.

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  46. Debra – Here in northeastern Connecticut, there is much more rural area than the middle or south of the state, along with quaint small towns that are pretty to drive through.

    Although I was born, & lived my first five years, in Connecticut, most of my growing up was in the midwest – seven years in Ohio & a little over three in Wisconsin. (And we lived two & a half years in the south, in Tennessee, after leaving Connecticut.)

    What amazed me upon moving back to Connecticut (at least this part of it) when I was 19, were the hills & trees. There is very little flat land around here, & there are trees everywhere. I love it!

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  47. Hubby used to be a chef in institutional accounts his company serviced, including cooking for banquets & fancy dinners for board members. And he went through the Johnson & Wales University Culinary Arts Program. So he knows how to cook, & is very good at it. Where he chops things up licketty-split, I am more deliberate & slow.

    But I can do things in the kitchen just fine – unless he is in there with me. Then I make all kinds of stupid mistakes or have trouble with simple things. I tell him that only happens when he is around, but I’m not sure he believes me. 🙂

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  48. Kizzie, that sounds like much of the Atlanta vicinity. We have trees and small hills. Our house is a split level because we are on a slope. Atlanta has a lot of trees which overhang the streets so that can be dangerous in bad weather.

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  49. It’s very hilly in the area where I live, my house is half way up the main hill rising toward the west from the port.

    I remember walking dogs with a neighbor once and getting to a particularly steep hill. Up we trudged. Huff, huff, huff. She was “into” exercise at the time.

    She turned to me as we finally neared the top and exclaimed “Doesn’t this feel great!?”

    “Um, yeah, sure, great,” I managed to pant. …

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  50. I see my earlier post didn’t show up.

    The final tally for my “unscientific” election poll: I tied Trump with 40. Hilary got 5 and three students were uncommitted.

    And it’s looking like Trump will be the next President. I am glad God is in control.

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  51. My house is also split level on a steep slope. So glad that someone added another driveway to the back so I can pull right up to the kitchen area. And it doesn’t have any grass to mow, just lots of rosemary. Of course that is not my home here!

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  52. When I get my new sliding door later this month, it will have a good lock on the outside so I’ll be able to use that coming and going more often — it’ll be handy with lots of groceries, tired of trudging up all the front steps.

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  56. Yes, I am in your time zone. 🙂 I’m wide awake, but it won’t be the case tomorrow (or later today I should say) when I have to go back to work and write again. 🙂

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  58. This kind of reminds me of 2000 when the presidential election was so crazy and lasted for days (I worked that night, too, way into the wee hours). At least this one seemed to end with a definitive result, albeit extremely close (and with the country, more than ever, fiercely divided).

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