45 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-20-16”

  3. Nice toy train layout.
    They have (had?) on at union station in Washington that was large. Several model trains ran on it.
    I have two sets of model trains. I have the set my little brother had. (He was killed in 1952)
    And I have Chuck’s train set. I haven’t had them running in years. They won’t run on the same track. My brother’s is much heavier than Chuck’s.
    Actually. I think Chuck now has them after the move.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. Good evening Jo.
    I never picked up a friend at an airport.
    If you don’t have a Christmas plan by now, you need to get with it.
    It will be here soon.
    Tomorrow will be the longest day of the year for you.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Longest day coming, then! 🙂

    And I’m getting an early start (easy to do when you fall asleep at 8:15 and wake up at 4).

    A quiet day with no plans except getting Christmas organized–cards, gifts, food, plans–with the gym in an hour (!!!) and a walk around the park after that.

    That means I’ll be shopping, sigh. But, when God wakes you up early to remind you a dying shut in needs a Christmas box in New Mexico, you got to get moving . . .

    36 this morning; it’s getting warmer.

    Liked by 3 people

  7. After we dropped off our daughter at the airport, my husband looked at me and said, “that’s it? The house is empty? No dogs, Stargazer, Hillary or CR? Just you and me?”

    Yowl.

    “And the cat?”

    Yes. Quiet bliss and order in the house..

    For two days.

    Other than the prep work. 🙂

    Liked by 6 people

  8. Good morning & evening & all in between ❤
    It’s busy, busy, busy time! When son is home I have a lot more food to prepare. I know to those who prepare for crowds, one mouth to feed seems like nothing, but it is amazing how the variety of what we have changes and how many extra trips to the grocery store it requires.

    We got to have lunch with my brother on Sunday after church at a Cracker Barrel about an hour from our home. They had nice gift items on clearance if anyone wants an alternative to mall shopping.

    I received a Christmas letter yesterday that made me dizzy with all the listings of places visited, people seen, activities attended, etc. I gave it to son to read, and he said he was looking for the thesis statement and he wished his composition students would write that much for their papers, LOL!

    Miss Bosley is so glad to have her sibling home (another peep to rule over and throne to sit in). Son thinks she is really funny. He has a sideline of housesitting with two cats at times so he knows how normal cats act. Miss Bosley does not act like a normal cat. She must have dropped down from heaven three years ago. She is supernatural. ❤

    Liked by 6 people

  10. Son wants a pourover coffee maker for Christmas. Does anyone have experience with these? Can you recommend a brand? I see coffee shops sell them, and also stores like Target, Walmart, and Bed,Bath & Beyond.

    Like

  12. The pictures are of our train garden. If you look closely, you’ll see several odd things in it. They are items that the girls brought down and insisted would be perfect additions. Then, of course, there are the princesses riding the trains. Some have no outfits on so are clad only in body suits. Sammy says that is because they are going to the pool. Hubby was off yesterday and we were watching her. It was hysterical listening to the two of them running the trains. She had on an old set of headphones (even though he was sitting right next to her) and was pretending to be the dispatcher, telling him when and where to start and stop them. She kept calling him “partner.” Before any train could take off, everyone on board had to have their ticket stamped and the dispatcher called out the rules: “No hitting, no kicking, no fighting, keep your arms inside the train, and don’t touch the trees because you’ll get stuck.” She’s four. The granddaughters have made Christmas great again.

    Liked by 9 people

  13. Are you talking about a regular drip coffee maker that you pour boiling water over or a French Press? There are also some really fancy smancy ones out there.

    Like

  14. I had never heard of them either, Chas. They look like permanent non-disposable coffee filters that fit over one mug so each cup is brewed individually.

    Son has been a fan of French press coffee maker. That makes what I call thick coffee because a plunger presses against the ground coffee and squeezes it though so you don’t get just the thin coffee you get from a typical coffee maker.

    Like

  16. So in everything else that happened I forgot to tell you about Guy getting his wife’s Christmas present. Last Wednesday, late afternoon, he called me and told me that Wife had send him a link to a pair of boots she wanted for Christmas. He asked me to go into his email, find the link, and order the boots. I did. I had trouble with his Amex and had to call him. I was missing one number so I got it fixed and was shipping the boots to my house. Thursday he got an email from Amex that they were not able to process the card because of suspected fraud. IF he had NOT made the charge please contact them. (He didn’t read that part). He went on line to order them himself and they were out of stock. He called the store and they told him they could not guaranty Christmas delivery. When I got to the office Thursday afternoon he was calling around to various stores to find the boots and get them shipped. FINALLY he found a store that had them and in Wife’s size. He ordered them but after all the asking for his driver’s license number and the issuing bank (the clerk couldn’t seem to understand that a bank didn’t issue an Amex card!!!) he started giving shipping instructions. He gave his billing address but then told her he didn’t want them shipped to his house because his wife would find them. He wanted them shipped to Kim H and started giving her my address. She said Ohhhhhhhhh. The guys in the office all had a good laugh about that. A few minutes after he hung up the phone from all that he got an email that the boots had shipped. He said that was impossible. How did they get it in the system so fast.
    Last night I got home and had not one but TWO packages on my front porch. I have opened one box and wrapped them and now have to figure out how to get the other pair shipped back to the store.
    Anyone want to buy a pair of black suede boots in a size 6.5?

    Liked by 5 people

  19. Kim. I didn’t listen to your 9:41. Nor will I.
    Saddest and dumbest song I know. He was only 200 yards from Mary Ann. His horse wouldn’t go any farther.
    A man with brains would have left the horse and gone to get help.
    It’s a real downer to hear that one.

    Liked by 2 people

  21. Oh, Kim. How lazy can a guy possibly get? Pathetic, IMO.

    Nice picture. My brother has a huge train set up. Those are always fun. Time with the grandchildren is precious.

    I believe we bought SIL a French press once. Don’t remember any details, however. Our daughter probably sent us a link or picture.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. Kim, hilarious christmas present story. At least the boots arrived and got wrapped. What’s an Amex card anyway? I’ll have to google it.

    My friend’s dad next door had a sophisticated model train layout in his garage, with little towns, trees, etc. We loved looking at it. It’s quite a pricey hobby niche for a lot of grownups — in fact the young guy who lived next door to me when I moved into this house had quit selling cars to start up his own business building model train layouts for rich people he was able to pick up as clients (mostly retired doctors and other professionals with money to burn). There were actually big shows and conventions where he’d buy up pieces that clients wanted and then he’d put it all together for or with them. But 9/11 put a damper on his business, apparently, and he wound up having to sell the house (to real estate pal who swept in and then flipped it in 2 years).

    He then sold the house to a young couple in 2007 when housing prices had really peaked around here, making a bundle, I’m sure. But when they had their first baby, it all became too much for them to juggle financially, so they’re now gone, too, but are happy renting an old Spanish-style home just around the corner so at least they got to stay in the neighborhood which they’d grown to love. She was a registered nurse and he built movie sets.

    Ricky, sweet picture of the little girl running to meet her dad. 🙂

    For me today it’s back to the grind & challenge of finding stories to write to carry me through the week. I have one for tomorrow and that’s about it so far …

    And I’ll be trying to hunt down the bronze drain kit I need for the bathtub.

    But it appears nothing will be moving in (or under) the house by way of repair/restoration jobs until after Jan. 1, so there’s a little breathing room again.

    Like

  24. Oh, I just remembered another story that someone told me about last night — our marine mammal care center where all the sick sea lions go to get better was broken into and their computers all stolen a couple nights ago. 😦

    Just need to find maybe 3 or 4 more stories — and we’ll need a Christmas day feature as well.

    Liked by 1 person

  25. Of course, hypothermia is mind altering and confuses the thought process. The whole idea of just wanting to lay down for a minute to rest the eyes is a very strong urge. If you have ever been out in deep snow and high winds, a hundred yards is a long distance. His feet were showing signs of frostbite way back in the trip. Winter storms are nothing to take lightly.

    Liked by 2 people

  28. Mumsee, fortunately, I never encountered it, but in survival training in the AF, they said, ‘Never stop” walking or whatever. Keep going.

    Like

  30. The Kid use to be into Thomas the Tank engine. We had a lot of fun combining the train set with the wooden blocks and big Lego. We also took him to a train museum where we got to ride a train pulled by Thomas himself. He got his picture taken with him and we hung it next to his pictures from Disney World. One day The Kid’s friend looked the pictures over and declared, “That’s not really Tigger. That just a guy in a suit but that’s the real Thomas the Tank Engine.”

    Liked by 3 people

  31. Advent – Day 20: Yesterday featured a Finnish poet. Today, it is the English Romantic poet Christian Rossetti (1830-1894), who is perhaps best known today for the carol ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’. She wrote the poem ‘Love Came Down at Christmas’ in about 1885 and it has been set to music many times. This setting is an arrangement of the traditional Irish tune ‘Garton’ and it suits the words of the poem very well:
    Love came down at Christmas,
    Love all lovely, Love Divine,
    Love was born at Christmas,
    Star and Angels gave the sign.

    Worship we the Godhead,
    Love Incarnate, Love Divine,
    Worship we our Jesus,
    But wherewith for sacred sign?

    Love shall be our token,
    Love be yours and love be mine,
    Love to God and all men,
    Love for plea and gift and sign.

    Liked by 3 people

  32. Chas, that would be the rule. Unless you can build yourself a shelter and perhaps a fire, then stay put. But hypothermia messes with your mind. Remember that fellow named Kim, I believe, drove with his family into the Oregon mtns following GPS and they got stuck. Stayed with the car until it looked like he needed to get help. They could tell when hypothermia was taking over as he started wandering and throwing off his clothing. And if he had tucked into his horse for warmth, he probably would have survived the night. I learned that from Star Wars.

    Like

  37. When hypothermia advances, I’ve heard, the sufferer can actually begin to feel warmer. Something with the altered blood flow, dilation/constriction of blood vessels, etc., sending warm blood to the extremities and away from the core.

    If your body is shivering, and then stops before you get to a warmer environment, that’s a bad sign. And if you start to feel warm under those conditions, that’s worse yet.

    Some people, whether due to the increased warm/hot feeling, or the mental slowdown that accompanies hypothermia, or a combination of things, actually start peeling off some of their clothes because they feel too warm, which of course hastens the body’s drop in temperature.

    At the very least, even if they don’t start stripping off layers of clothes, hypothermia victims who begin to feel warmer while still out in the elements that caused the condition, may easily get the feeling that they don’t need to get to safety with any haste, since they’re no longer shivering or feeling as cold as they were earlier.

    Such a dangerous condition. 😦

    Like

  38. Kbells, Thomas was fun. Eldest Niece and the two eldest nephews loved Thomas, so I learned to have an appreciation for the episodes with the filmed model trains with stop motion animated expressions. However, the Thomas franchise got sold and the model trains are no longer used in filming. Rather, CGI has taken over. Eldest Niece, who was a very avid a fan as a pre-schooler, gives it as her studied opinion that the story telling in the new Thomas is terrible and she is something of a budding film critic.

    Like

  40. Cheryl, a few months ago you mentioned a book that you enjoyed, Kaufman Field Guide to Nature of the Midwest. It sounded like a great book, so I looked it up and found it in our regional library system. We checked it out, and 4th and 6th Arrows especially loved perusing the book. We renewed it the maximum number of times possible (three three-week renewals beyond the initial three-week checkout period). A wonderful book to have on hand for 12 weeks!

    I like to try checking educational books out of the library before purchasing, so that I know that they’d be worth owning. That one certainly is! Thank you for mentioning it.

    Liked by 1 person

  41. I’m glad you enjoy it, 6 Arrows! I’m really surprised how much they packed in there.

    By the way, did you see my comment late on yesterday’s thread about the differences between the two female cardinals? I thought of you and your children when I wrote it, since I know you have some animal lovers among them.

    Like

  42. Yes, I did see that comment earlier today! I just showed 6th Arrow the two pictures now, and she was quite impressed with the one that had the larger black area.

    I haven’t studied individual differences between birds of the same species and gender much, except with male grosbeaks, whose red pattern on the chest can make individuals quite distinguishable.

    We took care of an injured male goldfinch for about two weeks many years ago, and after it was healed, we released it back into the wild. I could always tell which one he was when subsequently among a bunch of goldfinches at our thistle feeder.

    Like

  43. Yes, male grosbeaks are visibly different–though it’s a bird I’ve only seen two or three times, I’ve seen three males and they were all different. And I’ve occasionally been able to tell other individual birds apart. Years ago, when I was a child, house finches nested in front of our kitchen window every year. We’d get to watch them feeding the young while we washed dishes. One year we had an extra pale male, but he was an especially diligent parent. The next year it was clear we had the same male back again. And this year we have a pale male house finch hanging out among the others. I know some people are better than I at spotting differences, but I’m just happy when I can spot a few!

    Liked by 1 person

  44. Kim, Thanks for the Jim Reeves. Those songs remind me of my childhood. My parents loved Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold. Both of them were true Southern gentlemen.

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.