56 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-8-16”

  1. Looks like snow falling on the tree.
    😦 We have to go to Pat Cronan’s funeral today.
    Pat, for those who don’t remember, was pastor of Friendly Ave. BC.
    He died suddenly Sunday morning.

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  4. I am thankful to have the health insurance decision made, assuming my application is approved. So why would they not approve getting 836.00 per month without having anything to pay back? Well, who knows what might happen in this crazy modern world in which we live.

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  5. I’m so sorry, Janice. I’ve got several close to me struggling with the same thing. I’m giving dental appointments and eye exams for Christmas gifts. 😦 (Unless, God willing, one gets a job).

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  7. I also am not so sure about the “affordable” in the Affordable Care Act. I went to “the marketplace” to look and do qualify for a $50 “subsidy” but they warn you if you make too much money you may have to pay it back. I earn some commissions so I can’t say exactly what my income will be next year. This has been a good year, but so much was used to pay off medical co-pays for Mr. P because 1) We had the money and 2) We got a reduction of 30-40% by paying it in full.

    I have GOOD NEWS!!!! My aunt’s blood infection is responding to the antibiotics. Once she is clear of the infection, they will wait 10 days before putting her back on the transplant list. 🙂

    She will remain in Bham until the transplant. Which means she will not be here for Family Christmas at my house 😦 While I will miss her, I wouldn’t want her to risk anything.

    My friend L seems to be doing better. Yesterday I “chatted” with her through FB. She is on home health care and the pharmacy “tech” who brought her medication yesterday asked her how much it cost to have someone come in and decorate you tree “like that”? She told him years and years of friendship. 🙂
    THAT made me happy I had done it for her and happier than if someone had actually paid me real money to do it.

    Mr. P and I were trying to hang a mirror in the living room last night. The “Admiral” measured, used his level, his stud-finder, and the red numbers on the measuring tape to find the EXACT location of the stud because you CANNOT just put a nail in the dry wall and hang it…It HAS to be in a stud. I, on the other hand, wanted the mirror where I wanted it and didn’t care about the stud, although I did take the stud finder and found a stud closer to where I wanted the mirror placed. After about 30 minutes of this clown routine he FINALLY put the 50lb hook in the wall (Oh, did I forget to tell you that we weighed the mirror on the bathroom scales—It weighed 38lbs). Once we got the hook set, and I made sure the hanging wire was on the hook, the metal piece on the back of the mirror that screws in to hold the wire came off of the back of the mirror!!!!!!! Luckily he was still holding the mirror and caught it before it crashed to the ground. I went to the junk drawer and found more screws in an old medicine container (my dad had unique storage solutions). We never could get the brackets screwed back in to one side of the mirror so I will have to take it to the frame shop today and have them fix it.
    The fact that the brackets came loose on this mirror and the small depth of the screws that have hung that mirror for 20+ years has Jimmy Black written all over it.

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  9. It’s in a stud. 😉
    He just kept searching for one to the right and I wanted him to search for one to the left. It doesn’t matter to me that the mirror is centered EXACTLY in the middle of the wall. It mattered to me that it was centered between the two chairs and table that is on that wall. It also mattered that I wanted to reflect the view of the trees out back and not the fireplace.

    My decorating was much easier when my friend L came and hung everything. SHE has a degree in interior design and a background in construction.

    I just think it is funny when my easy going husband morphs into the “Admiral” when it comes to anything like this. I deal with it by developing Adult Attention Deficit Disorder and walking away. I scurry back when he can’t find the pencil or the tape measure or whatever else it is he needs.

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  10. Advent – Day 8: The music of this carol was written by modern English composer John Rutter, but he did not write the words. The words were written in about 1648, by the poet Robert Herrick. The original title of the carol was ‘A Christmas Carol, Sung To The King In The Presence At Whitehall’. The king referred to in the title was the doomed Charles I, who would be executed in 1649, but Herrick speaks in the poem of another King, a heavenly King:
    Chorus. What sweeter music can we bring,
    Than a carol, for to sing
    The birth of this our heavenly King?
    Awake the voice! Awake the string!
    Heart, ear, and eye, and everything,
    Awake! the while the active finger
    Runs divisions with the singer.
    (From the flourish they come to the song.)
    I. Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
    And give the honour to this day,
    That sees December turn’d to May.
    II. If we may ask the reason, say
    The why and wherefore all things here
    Seem like the springtime of the year?
    III. Why does the chilling winter’s morn
    Smile like a field beset with corn?
    Or smell like to a mead new-shorn,
    Thus on the sudden?
    IV. Come and see
    The cause why things thus fragrant be:
    ‘Tis He is born whose quickening birth
    Gives life and lustre public mirth
    To heaven and the under-earth.
    Chorus. We see Him come, and know Him ours,
    Who with His sunshine and His showers
    Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
    I. The Darling of the world is come,
    And fit it is we find a room
    To welcome Him.
    II. The nobler part
    Of all the house here, is the heart.
    Chorus. Which we will give him; and bequeath
    This holly and this ivy wreath,
    To do him honour who’s our King,
    The Lord of all this revelling.

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  12. Cheryl, on pumping water into wells, we’ve done it before in other dry years. Some people get an above ground holding tank for water, but since our well is dug, not drilled, it works well as a holding tank. It is just a kind of stop gap solution until the ground water table goes back to normal.

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  13. Oh, Kim, I understand so well. My husband is exactly the same. I have a wall hanging I bought yesterday. It is heavy. I also have a light picture that needs to be hung and has been waiting. I will probably just do that one myself, since it is so light and in an easy spot. My daughter, as you know, has an interior design degree. She had do construction to get that. She has been a big help in reminding her dad that there are ways to hang things on walls in spots that do not have a perfect stud in a perfect place. 😀

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  14. I see that Dr. Helen Roseveare has died: https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2016/12/07/a-woman-of-whom-the-world-was-not-worthy-helen-roseveare-1925-2016/.
    The last time I was in this city, Dr. Roseveare came and spoke at the church I go to and I went to hear her. In her talk, she challenged ‘the young people’ in the audience to be willing to go anywhere and said, “you may find it is to go to Africa”. I had long desired to do missions, but I felt no desire for Africa in particular, but I remember getting that uneasy feeling that maybe it was Africa, but then I told myself that was ridiculous, I was just getting caught up in the moment. A year and a half later, I was on my way to West Africa. Not long ago, at the funeral of a mutual friend, I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Roseveare’s successors in the Congo and we had a good discussion about medical missions. Sometimes, I wonder what is coming next?

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  15. Funny mirror story. I can kind of relate, though i guess I need one of those Admirals who knows what he’s doing — since I usually don’t. But I do own a stud finder.

    I have a busy day with another wood window restoration guy coming this morning (I have questions, the more I learn, the more I know what to ask); then it’s off to interview a woman whose house is filled with hundreds of Santas and other Christmas decorations; then into the office for a while to write; then to a port groundbreaking; then (probably) home to write that.

    Tomorrow I work from home finishing up all my stories for the week while the plumber hopefully gets the small closet-bathroom in decent running order.

    I’m still waiting to hear if any work can be done next week on the main bathroom. I guess I didn’t anticipate the big gaps between each stage when this project started, but it’s coming piece by piece. I may gently have to ask my real estate pal if anyone might be available sort of ‘soon’ that he knows of to start putting it all back together again — or if he has suggestions on how I can find people on my own if that’s the better way to go. My understanding was he was going to provide the labor contacts for all of this. The tile shop did say they worked with a lot of tile guys in my area, so they would be a resource.

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  16. So I guess last night was my turn to fall.

    I was feeding the 3 cats, apparently I wasn’t fast enough, and they conspired against me. While I was giving mouse her plate Gemma got under foot, I stepped back to avoid her and there was the old one. I tried to avoid stepping on her, succeeded, but lost my balance and took a head and bad shoulder first dive into the dishwasher. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the plate of wet cat food went up in the air and landed on my head. My head doesn’t hurt too bad today, but my neck and shoulder sure do. 😦

    Stupid cats…. 🙂

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  19. It’s what we do.

    Ouch, AJ — funny, but ouch. Hope you heal up quickly.

    And Janice, so sorry to hear about the health insurance travails with that “affordable” health system we now have. What a mess, huh? I’m grateful I still can tap into an employer plan for now, even though those aren’t nearly as good or inexpensive as they once were, either.

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  21. I told the black cat yesterday that he would be the death of me. He does the cat weave on the people legs and I do the punt kick. Not really all you cat people. I gently nudge him aside. He stays back for a while but slowly gets back until a week or two later, he is back at it. Stupid cats….

    I do hope you recover quickly the real. You have enough aches and pains without that.

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  22. You probably really terrified the poor cats with all of that, right? I love how they give you “that look” like you’ve just freaked out on them for no reason at all.

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  23. I on the other hand am just in from feeding the outdoor cats, dogs, horses, sheep, rabbits, chickens, guineas, turkeys, and goats. And deicing their water and moving their water heaters, etc. Came in and turned on the coffee maker. It ground the beans and then shortly after, signaled it was done. I poured myself a nice cup of cold water. Oops. Wonder what else I missed doing the chores outside. But, at fifteen degrees, I may wait a bit before going back out to check.

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  26. Donna,

    The old cat ran under the table, Mouse took off for the living room horrified, and Gemma just started eating cat food off the floor. At least Cheryl and Elizabeth came running to help. 🙂

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  27. “Not only cats in the house but a cat food cap on your head. Nice.”

    I felt a bit like Wiley Coyote, hurt, and then humiliated on top of it.

    All that was missing was this….

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  29. We have a stud finder but my husband has misplaced it. I am the organizer here. I like everything in its place. Item was hung up. The funny thing was that I marked the spot for him to place the nail, but he saw what he thought was the mark, only to be mistaken. When he hung the item, it was not at all in the right spot. Now we have another hole in the wall. At least it is not easily noticeable.

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  32. AJ, you said it’s 17 days until Christmas. The birds in the header are having Christmas already with the feast you provided. I hope they at least tip their wings to you in gratitude ❤

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  33. I am sorry to hear about your recent falls, NancyJill and AJ. I hope you both heal well.

    Janice, that insurance biz sounds like such a nightmare. It is for my brother and his family, too. Their premiums will be over $2,000 a month starting in January. I can’t remember all the percentages my brother said, but the second rate increase was about 8%, and he said he was relieved that it wasn’t nearly as high as the first increase, so he surmised that only the first one was bad, and assumed the increases from the second one on would level off more.

    Not so. I don’t remember all the figures, but one of the increases, either the first or the third, was 30-something percent, and the other of those was 50-something percent! (I think the first was the highest of the three hikes so far.)

    I can’t even…

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  34. Cheryl, from Tuesday. You were right about the birds not taking long to find the feeder. Just before dark on the day we put up the new one and replenished the bird seed, I saw juncos and a nuthatch eating. Next morning there were chickadees and cardinals, and one of my kids said there was a downy woodpecker there, too. Today I saw a blue jay and a red-bellied woodpecker. I’m glad they found it. 🙂

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  36. The benefit of paying so much for not a lot of insurance coverage is that I can make people appreciate what they have. I am being a joy bringer!

    I am thankful our son has his coverage through the university. He is the only one in my family with employer coverage.

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  38. AJ, I am glad you are not hurt substantially by the feeding the cats tumble. It hurt hearing about it, but I admit that it made me laugh.

    Earlier I put decorations on the barberry. My hands we freezing. It would have been such a pleasant job yesterday, but I had other things to take care of. At the women’s church meeting I got a group home to send Christmas cards to so I spent time writing messages to the recipients and going to the post office to be sure of proper postage for mailing the package of cards. I still have a lot of my own cards to do.

    I can’t believe it’s already 3:30. It gets dark too early!!! I need to find more decorations to put outside. I only put out what I bought this year. Now I need to find my other ornaments, Lucite birds and snowflakes, to fill it up. It’s so windy. I hope everything is securely attached.

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  40. Dancing.

    I found and hired a window restorer. I had held off calling them — it’s a specialty company that does historic windows — because I thought they’d just be way out of my league financially.

    But their quote for the expert repairs (and so many other things they do) were the same as the two others I had in hand (one for replacing only some of them, another for fixing all but by someone whom I didn’t think had much experience doing that and would have taken the windows off-site leaving my house covered in plywood).

    These guys come to do the work on-site in a day. Yay. They’re backed up on their schedule, but that’s ok as my bathroom still is first in line to get done anyway; he thought maybe I could get on the schedule no later than February, probably sooner.

    And best of all, this will be exactly the kind of thing I was hoping someone could do (expertly restore what’s there to save the windows as is) — plus they make them fit tightly (they don’t now), add weather stripping and new locking hardware. Keep the existing wood and glass. Historic but made to be much better functioning.

    That’s a weight off my shoulders, I think they’re the 5th people I’ve had look at them and only my 3rd bid (two guys just shrugged and said “replace ’em”). I was pleasantly surprised by both their expertise in what’s a niche field & by their price. And they “get it” when it comes to keeping old houses intact.

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  44. I am home from talking to people about restaurant space. It is cold outside. I went out to bring plants in. One had a lot of water in it and spilled on my feet. Yes, I was wearing thong sandals and now my toes are COLD.
    It is supposed to get down in the 20’s tonight or early tomorrow morning. I brought home BBQ for dinner.
    Oh and while I was out I got Mr. P a Christmas present and BG a stocking stuffer(boot cuffs) What did I get myself you ask? A jingle bell ornament in the shape of an H that I put on the interior doorknob of the front door—it was marked down to $2

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  46. word was not allowing me to post!!
    As I was sayin’…..it is 8 degrees here right now…going down to 2 with a chill to make it feel like -13…
    We had sunshine and blue skies at our elevation…when we ventured into the Springs this morning, they had snow, freezing winds and icy roads! Life is good in the Forest 🙂

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  48. Indeed, I remember how big a deal he was when I as a kid. He was always expected also to run for president, but I’m not sure he ever really threw his hat into the ring?

    While I was covering a groundbreaking at the port today I ran into the real estate guy who sold me my house. He’s sending me contacts for a good painter he knows and for someone local who does foundation work for much less than the fancy-schmancy companies in Pasadena. 🙂 In exchange, I said I’d keep an ear or eye out for a smallish puppy-dog for his family, says his 95-pound Lab and his young son need another running buddy.

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  54. Thanks, NancyJill. I’m looking forward to it, and hoping I don’t sleep through and miss it, since I seem to be awake now when I’m supposed to be sleeping.

    Groan. A big private crying jag when I first went to bed (too early), a whopper headache after that, the feeling that I’m the dumbest person in the whole world, worthless, etc. etc. and everything else bad that a mind can think about itself when it’s dark out.

    I really want it to be light out, and soon…

    Guess I’ll sit and read one of my library books. Sorry for the early rant. Things will be better in a few hours.

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