76 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-19-17”

  3. Sorry, folks. I had a nice picture of cutting up a watermelon in the middle of a road for a snack in Tonga. I am not sure what happened.

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  4. Good Morning….it is dark and still in the forest…and I have had my first cup of coffee…I couldn’t taste it but it was good all the same!! Feeling better but have lost the taste buds…
    I saw a report on the flooding in Houston….praying all is well with you and yours Ann….. ❤

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  5. I read Peter’s comment on names on yesterday’s thread. Just imagine one day having a Grandma Tiffany. Madison, Courtney, etc. I like more traditional names.
    I have to get to work. If only I could win the lottery and never have to work again…..
    Of course that would require buying a lottery ticket and I don’t do that for two reasons
    1. Many years ago ex-husband and I would sometimes buy a pick 5. I played the same set of numbers. It was a combination of dates. One Sunday morning there were the winning numbers. My numbers!!!! I didn’t have a lottery ticket. What are the chances of that ever happening again?
    2. I agree that a lottery is a tax on people that are bad at math.

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  6. It is dark and still here, as well. I don’t hear ice dripping from the eaves so it must have gotten cold again. Icy maybe? Have not heard if school is closed again.

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  8. All of my nieces and nephews have names that go far back in history. Four of them have names from the Bible, two of them actual names from the Bible, and two of them concepts from the Bible which have long been proper names – since at least the days of the Puritans, when naming your child qualities like Charity or Mercy was the thing to do. Two others have linguistic variants of a Bible name and a Biblical concept respectively. Of the rest, two have very old fashioned names, and one has a modern cultural variant on a time-honoured name.
    Speaking of Puritan names, there are far worse thing than being named Onyx: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/09/13/puritan_names_lists_of_bizarre_religious_nomenclature_used_by_puritans.html
    [Disclaimer: none of my siblings used the names in these lists 😉 ]

    Speaking of parents’ unintentional cruelty in naming their children, my father arranged the order one of my sibling’s names so the initials would spell a word and was going to name me with two, good old fashioned names, arranged so they would form a pun – I am forever grateful to the family friend who protested doing such a thing to a child. I got just one of the names, while my first name was chosen by my mother.

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  9. Good morning! We need 48 hours in a day sometimes, don’t we? God knew we would not survive that so He only gave 24.

    I had my coffee, but still need more energy. I will go shop for supplies and see if I find any energy on the shelf for a reasonable price. Not an energy drink, but the pure stuff, LOL.

    It continues to be warm enough to have windows open all night. That is really something! Right when we need it with the EPA/Watershed resting. God is good.

    If anyone needs good quality copy paper, Staples has such a deal on HP Copy Plus. You can get a case of 10 reams with a rebate (Visa card) of $41. That is a great deal. Limited to two per address.

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  11. Roy is still around…on FB…I think I’ll message him to stop in and say hi every now and again….
    I had a second cup of coffee…and I could taste it this time….oh happy day!!
    That is a sweet photo up there….I sure do miss cardinals….wonder why they don’t like Colorado?

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  12. Good morning. While I was eating breakfast earlier, I thought of a QoD. Right after rolling out of bed for the day, do you immediately start preparing/eating breakfast, or do you do other things first? (If so, what?)

    From reading NancyJill’s and Janice’s posts here this morning, I’m thinking getting your coffee might be one of those before-anything-else activities. 😉

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  14. Shower, Bible time, start the fire, check with you folks and email and a bit of news. Depending on how early I got up, a game of Spider. Set the children to their chores, do my feeding of the guineas, sheep, goats, chickens,and turkeys and bring up the firewood. Then start breakfast, which is cooking as we speak. And then, if I think about it, do something about some coffee, usually a day or two old. Or some tea.

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  15. Chat with eighteen year old, get the plans for his day and how they might impact me before he heads off to school And catch up on some dishes so we are ready for school at nine.

    Had to let fifteen year old know last night that his peer pressure has no bearing on my decisions. He was not too shocked.

    “Mom, did you talk with dad yet as to whether I can go to the basketball game tomorrow night, and work the concessions stand?”

    Nope, not yet.

    “I have to do it, I have not done my part yet.”

    Schools cannot require you to do extracurricular activity, that is the parents’ decision.

    “Well, it is not the school requiring it, my friends….peer pressure…”

    Actually, son, your peer pressure does not have any affect on me. Your decisions at school and at home help determine my decisions on what you get to do, Has nothing to do with what your friends want from you.

    But we are planning on letting him attend, getting a ride home with his brother.

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  16. Amos sleeps with me, so the moment he thinks I may be stirring awake, he rattles his tags, walks up the bed and let’s me know that it’s been a long night for a Boy Dog. I stumble out of bed to let him out, I try to convince Lulabelle that she needs to go outside too. She has developed some aversion to going outside. Then I stumble back to the kitchen, start the coffee, fill dog bowls with breakfast and water, pour the one cup of coffee that has dripped so far, let the dogs in…..
    This is a good house in which to be a dog.

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  17. 6 Arrows, no, I don’t have breakfast immediately. When I was working at 8:00 every morning, for a time I would eat a quick breakfast before leaving for work. Sometimes I’d rush and decide just to eat at work (I kept instant oatmeal, dried fruit, etc. in my desk at work for just such times.) It wasn’t more than a few weeks before I realized that whether I ate before work made NO difference in whether or not I was hungry about 9:30, so after that I didn’t bother with the early breakfast but would simply eat when I got hungry, and that’s what I still do today.

    Not being much of a breakfast person, it’s a rare day I do much of anything for it. Occasionally I’ll make French toast or grits and sausage. But more commonly I get a boiled egg and an orange, a bowl of cereal (no milk), a handful from a fruit-and-nut mix I mixed and put in a bag in the freezer, etc.

    When I had foster children, I decided to make Saturday breakfast special. Those children could eat and eat at times, and Saturday morning I’d make three or four things. One week I might peel an orange and divide it into sections, and they could eat it while I was frying eggs and sausage and while blueberry muffins were cooking. Another week I’d offer boiled eggs, apple slices, orange juice, grits, and pecan halves. The third week I might make French toast, bacon, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs. But they’d sit at the table eating one thing and by the time they had finished that, something else was ready. If they didn’t want one item, that was fine because there were plenty of choices. Lunch would then be late, and light. I figure I will do the same tradition with grandchildren someday; if they are here on a Saturday morning, they’ll wake up to three or four food choices and grow to have favorites among them.

    What I do before breakfast varies (I’m trying to get into more consistent habits) and partly depends on what time I get up. I rarely begin editing before 11:00 or even noon, but it isn’t uncommon for me to edit till 11:00 or sometimes midnight. (When I was single, working till 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. wasn’t uncommon, 3:00 on occasion.) My mornings tend to be more casual, like shower, make the bed, check e-mail, maybe wash a few dishes. I tend to read Scripture later in the day but would “like” to make it a habit to do that first thing.

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  18. When I hear the name, “Essie,” I picture the grandpa grape on Vegie Tales being Mordechai and talking to his niece.

    All the old names are very popular right now. I suspect their will be many Essie’s.

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  19. I used to take a shower when I got up. Sigh. Now I gaze wistfully in on my 2/3-done cute-as-a-button-so-far bathroom, dream a little dream about how “someday” I will be using that hot shower again, and go to the spare room closet bathroom to wash up for the day.

    It rained all night here but the sun is out today. Another storm comes in tonight and will last through tomorrow, though. I think my little city tree is slowly coming back to life. 🙂

    I was awake for a while last night enjoying the sounds of the rain, praying for many of you & others, and feeling grateful for that new roof I had put on last summer. Rain is so much more enjoyable when you’re not worried about a leaky roof.

    I’m slowly feeling better but my voice is still not fully back so I am trying to not use it as much as possible (which is hard at work).

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  20. Well, I got to thinking, DJ, we have a nice portable shower we got from Cabela’s. That would have worked great in your torn out shower! But there is still time. It is an outdoor shower so you could set one up in the backyard and run the hose to it! You are welcome.

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  21. Haha – thanks mumsee.

    I had no idea this would all take so long. It’s been real.

    I have dreams about that bathroom — mostly about things going wrong (the sink is put in but doesn’t work, for example).

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  23. Always nice when big projects are completed.

    Today I woke up hungry, so, other than first reading Mark 14 before leaving my bedroom, breakfast was first on the agenda when I emerged from my room — just heated up some cooked rice, beans and hamburger from last night’s supper, and was good to go.

    I used to always eat breakfast first, for years and years, but my metabolism is slower now and I can usually wait to eat. Often I wake up with at least one idea burning in my mind of something I want to do right then, so I go to it and may not even get to breakfast until an hour or more later. (Depends what time the kids get up, too — we aren’t generally alarm-setters except on Sundays — but it’s nice if we can all have breakfast somewhat around the same time.)

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  24. NancyJill, I’ve been thinking about Ann lately, too, wondering where she’s been. I didn’t know there was flooding in Houston. Thanks for mentioning that. Good opportunity to pray.

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  25. According to the paper–which seems high to me–we got 2.7 inches of rain yesterday. It’s not raining now, but doesn’t look particularly happy outside. We’re in the midst of the same pattern as Donna–and I sure hope the valley between us is getting soaked, soaked, soaked. We need vegetables!

    A wonderful day for me just working on all my writing projects at home. Bliss for 8 more hours (except for having to cook dinner). Hoping to make some real progress on this lengthy list of things to do.

    I’m still reading Judges and am now in Samson. I don’t like the man. He’s just organized his own wedding and had the scene with the dead lion and the bees. My Lutheran Study Bible notes explain God used Samson’s sin to accomplish God’s will–and who am I to argue with God?

    But, I find myself, particularly in the sense of “everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” asking how I, standing by, can assess whether someone’s extreme actions are doing what is right in their own eyes or being obedient to an unusual opportunity for God to work through someone’s sin.

    Does my question even make sense?

    How about a simple QOD: do you like Samson out of the book of Judges? How do you react to/assess him?

    For the current QOD, my answer is basically: “it depends.” 🙂

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  26. In other news, my Engineer straps his Fitbit on my wrist every night to monitor my sleeping patterns. I’ve been sleeping pretty well–trying to beat the score, I’m sure–but after a week we are seeing one pattern: it takes me half an hour, at least, to fall asleep each night.

    He, being nuclear trained, closes his eyes and is out.

    Which one of us is abnormal? 🙂

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  27. Michelle, as far back as I can remember–I probably was no older than ten–it has taken me a minimum of half an hour to fall asleep 90% of the time or more. Now I also have the joy of lying awake for at least an hour one or more times during the night as well, most nights. My husband is asleep within a minute or two of our good-night kiss. I remember how young I was with insomnia because my sister and I had an argument over whether to sleep with the door open or closed, and we took it to Mom. She wanted the door closed because she didn’t like the hall night light shining into our room. I wanted the door open because I liked the night light; it allowed me to look around the room for the hour or two between bedtime and sleep. My mother said that since my sister fell asleep as soon as she and I stopped whispering, my desire was the more relevant one. I thought her choice was wise, but of course she sided with me. I assume that my sister, if she thought about it, realized that it did indeed make more sense to choose the comfort of the one who was going to be lying awake rather than the preference of the one who really wasn’t affected by the choice but simply had a mild preference.

    As a lifelong night owl, I’ve sometimes wondered if I would experience less insomnia if I had been allowed to stay up quietly until I was actually sleepy. My husband said he and his late wife sneakily encouraged reading by giving the girls flashlights that they were allowed to use in bed to read. Had I been given such an option, I might well have read until I was actually sleepy on my own, and then gone to sleep. But who knows, maybe instead I would have fought sleepiness to keep on reading (having done that quite a few times as an adult)?

    But it is extremely rare that I go to sleep right away, even if I am so tired I stagger to bed. Maybe twice a year I go to sleep within half an hour of going to bed and sleep for eight or nine hours straight. It’s rare enough I always wake up delighted and surprised when it happens. But I usually have to be short of sleep four or five days in a row (three or four hours a night) before my body is exhausted enough to do that.

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  28. It might be 99% or more of the time it takes me at least half an hour to fall asleep. It is virtually always.

    Re Samson: as a child I really loved him, but am not sure why. Perhaps a favorite Sunday school teacher taught a lesson in which she made him out to be a real hero, I don’t know.

    When I was 10 or 12 I read the story for myself and was dismayed and rather horrified. And every week my siblings and I would listen Saturday morning to Children’s Bible Hour, which sometimes featured a question from a child listener. So I wrote to them something like “Will Samson be in heaven?” I thought that it probably wouldn’t be chosen to use on the radio, but at least someone would take the time to read my question and give me a biblically based answer. But alas I got no response at all. (The answer? Yes. He is mentioned in Hebrews 11, and he wouldn’t be there if he was not one of the redeemed.)

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  29. Who would ever factor in mowing the lawn in January? I don’t have my reading glasses to edit this. Hopefully I won’t key in something stupid on top of phone rearrangements.

    I had to keep going back over the small section to try and get up all the leaves so what is usually an easy section has me sweaty and worn out.

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  30. I will have to go back and read yesterday’s and today’s thread.

    I took some aspirin to hopefully ward off soreness. I had to yank the pull cord about thirty times to get the mower started. I was going to give it up to a hundred before I would quit. You know how ornery machinery can be when you take it out of winter hibernation.

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  32. 6arrows, My morning routine is borderline OCD. I put on the tea kettle and must get dressed, feed the old cat, let the young cat in and the dog out before it whistles. I then let it seep for 7 minutes in which time, I wake the kid, put on my makeup and shoes , let the dog back in and young cat back out. Then I watch the first two segments of Red Eye while I drink my tea. I let young cat back in, fix a little breakfast and watch the rest of the show while I eat. This gives me just enough time to make and pack my lunch and briefcase let young cat back in and out one more time and head out for work. Sometimes Hubby or the Kid will do something to throw me off, like go in the bathroom when I suppose to be in there putting on my make up or try to tell me something they consider vital during A Moment with Tom, forcing me to rewind. I don’t like that. 🙂 The 🙂 is so y’all won’t think I’m crazy, though this is mostly true.

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  33. I need pictures. So somebody send me some for headers. You can send them to the blog email, or my yahoo one. Thanks. 🙂

    I was supposed to get some pics the other day when we went to the Poconos to the outlets, but I shopped with the girls instead.

    I got a new Van Heusen black suit at an insane price after the sale price, and Cheryl’s employee discounts, and some orange sneakers outta the deal, so I made out pretty good, although I did have to suffer thru a trip into Forever 21.

    Hot Topic too, although I kinda like that one. Lot’s off superhero stuff, and where else can you shop where Motorhead, Beastie Boyz, and other assorted classic metal plays in the background? 🙂

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  34. Morning routine.

    M-F

    Up at 6am, dress, turn on lights, computer, coffee pot, all the while dodging 3 hungry cats. Make Cheryl’s lunch, pack it while still dodging cats, go warm whichever car she’s taking. Help her put computer bag, lunch in car, kiss her, wave bye. Go back in house, while still dodging cats. Make coffee, and feed the cats. Now that cats aren’t trying to trip me I go post blog stuff, drink coffee, read. Wake ‘Liz for school after a bit, have more coffee. I rarely eat until 10-11.

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  35. I always let my children read in bed. I may have told them to turn out the lights, if it went on too long. I think that is far better than scolding them for not sleeping. Who can sleep if they are not tired?

    I seldom get a good nights rest anymore. It somehow seems unfair to not be able to sleep through the night after your children are gone. I suppose it is more an under appreciation for all the nights I slept wonderfully. That can be multiplied many times over for what we do not appreciate until we no longer have it.

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  37. I tell them to be in their rooms at night, lights out but I don’t care if they are up and playing quietly in the dark, or reading with a flashlight, as long as it does not interfere with their ability to wake themselves up, without an alarm, in the morning. But I do need my time with each child in the evening. Reading with the small folk in the evening until their bedtime of six thirty to seven, sitting and braiding and talking with fifteen year old until her bedtime of seven thirty, chatting with eighteen year old until my bedtime of eight fifteen. Fifteen year old boy gets his time when he gets home from school. He usually toddles off to bed a bit before seven. Everybody up by seven in the morning and out the door to chores. Most of them need and use the full amount. Though fifteen year old daughter is usually awake until ten and awake earlier than seven.

    I generally go right to sleep and maybe get up once for a brief moment and then back to sleep until about five, not needing to get up until six fifteen but usually managing so I can have some peaceful time.

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  39. You cat people will be pleased to know that I always feed the cats the very first thing out the door. As the black one is sitting on the shoe shelf, tapping my shoulder when I come out. And the other is sitting in the nice comfy basket I fixed up for him and where I feed him. Breakfast in bed for both of them. Lazy bums.

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  40. Phos mentioned names again. Reminded me that the former governor of Texas, James Hogg, named his daughter Ima. And she never married.

    Morning routine: I suspect some of you gathered, I partly dress, come in here and turn on the computer, finish getting dressed. say something to Jo and Aj. Then go to breakfast, devotionals and whatever until I come back and check what’s going on. Sometimes as, you might suspect, I comment on something I read in the Bible. Sometimes, I ponder something, but leave it alone. As I did Psalm 19 this morning.

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  41. I forgot, I must-must-must feed the cat asap or she meows incessantly and will eventually start clawing at me in her frustration to try to get my attention.

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  42. Re: Samson. The story of an abject failure. Here was a man chosen of God to deliver his people. He spent his life teasing sin and ended killing himself and a few thousand people because he succumbed to a strange woman’s teasing.
    He killed a few Philistines here and there, but didn’t deliver Israel.
    Not only that, he was stupid. Delilah tried three times to get him to tell the secret of his strength. The first time he told her a lie. She tied him with green vines and he had to fight his way out. He did it again. I’m not a smart guy, but even I would have caught on to this plot by the third time.
    You read the story of Samson, you read about blunder after blunder after blunder.
    Finally, he killed himself and a few thousand Philistines.
    And Israel was not delivered.

    The Bible doesn’t cover up the bad. It doesn’t for David either. That reinforces my confidence in it.

    I have only heard one sermon about Samson in my entire life. The title of the sermon was “Just This Once”>

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  43. Years ago, I forgot the subject, but I was talking to Chuck. I told him, “You don’t judge a man by the strength that’s in his arm, but by the spine that’s in his back.”

    Samson was a man with the strength of a lion and the spine of a snail.
    Can you gather that I don’t like Samson?

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  44. I have been thinking about the incense and reading Leviticus and the book, Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace by Boice. He just talked about Tozer and his views on losing the majesty of God in our thoughts. Being raised in the sixties and seventies, we were very relaxed and chill. All was good and God takes us just as we are. Fine, but have we forgotten? While going through or past various Cathedrals in Europe, I often thought what a silly waste it was. However, reading Leviticus and pondering the effort they put into devotion to God and reflecting His Majesty, have we set that aside with our modern independence? The incense and stained glass and ritual, were all designed to remind us that His thoughts are not our thoughts. Just thinking this through…..

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  48. I get up and go straight to my chair to read the Bible and a couple of devotionals and then open my computer to greet you all. After about an hour, I get dressed and then make breakfast. Of course, on Fridays, I read the Bible and then go to market.

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  50. That means I got 50, whatever that does.
    “Bone in his back”

    I wonder what made Delilah think there was a “source” of Samson’s strength other than he ate his spinach and spent three hours a day in the gym?

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  51. “It’s in my genes Delilah. I have an uncle who eats nails for breakfast and uses railroad spikes to clean his teeth”. Or whatever they said in those days.
    Don’t you wish Michelle hadn’t said anything?
    Relax now, I’m going to watch “The Five” on TV.
    No I’m not. they’re going to have Trump.
    I’m going to read some.

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  53. Michelle the link above is from my EE friend with the comment:
    For fellow Enterprise Sailors like me who miss the Big E: An album of sounds recorded on the ship. Play this at night and sleep like a baby!

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  54. I was laughing about a story on the schools not allowing children to watch the inauguration. One of the reasons was to not expose the children to foul language. If their children go to a school with children like my children, they have already heard a lot of foul language, much more than President elect Trump is going to provide.

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  56. Well, that is much more important than watching that silly real life stuff. Of course, the teachers do not encourage certain demonstrations over others. They offer pro life demonstrations along with pro end of life demonstrations?

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  60. I am exhausted, and I did not finish.

    In the morning I usually make coffee and try to read my Bible first thing. I take the cup with me and sit in the bed to read and do a devotional. Miss Bosley then scoots in front of my Bible to get in her cuddle time. My arms get tired holding up my Bible to read it while she is in her favorite area near my neck and shoulder. If windows are open, she may choose that over time with me because birds are so thrilling to her. That is how I like to begin my days, but sometimes other things happen to disrupt that appointment with God. I try to get a lunch together for Art. We usually have some morning laughter about some new crazy cat thing Miss Bosley has done. We do not usually have an early breakfast. Art does not drink coffee, but enjoys his morning Cola.

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  61. I just read an interesting concept. “The idea that zero could be used as a place holder came from India in the ninth century.”
    Interesting. The idea that the ancients didn’t have the concept that nothing could be something to deal with. Is it that the ancients thought you could go from plus to minus without passing zero. It is possible that they never had use for zero, but I’m surprised that the Greeks didn’t consider it.

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  62. Morning routine: Get up, go and wash up, get dressed, eat breakfast, then whatever is on my schedule for the day (all the classes start at different times each day). I don’t like mornings, so I get them over with as quickly as possible. If it is a holiday, then I’ll read something and pretend morning doesn’t exist – until I get hungry around eleven and decide to get dressed and go find some food.

    On Samson, I don’t know. I suppose if the Lord can use a man like Samson, there might be some hope for the rest of us. I’ve noticed, among more liberal Christian circles, a tendency to condemn men like Samson and David, and even Paul, because of their glaring failures; while growing up, such men were presented to me as glowing heroes and their failures were glossed over. I think both approaches are wrong. Samson is in the Bible for a reason. There were a lot of other sordid and foolish people that God didn’t bother to include in his account. Samson couldn’t have been the only serial womanizer in the land of Israel. What was different about Samson was that tiny spark of faith, a spark which only clearly shows in the final moments of his life. Remember what Christ said about faith, that if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell the mountain to go into the sea and it would. Samson was not a good man; at the time of his greatest power, he abused the gift of the Holy Spirit, in a similar way to Balaam abusing his gift of prophecy for profit. Had the end of Samson’s life been different, he would never have been written about, except maybe as a warning to those who misused their God-given abilities. It was that final prayer which showed that Samson believed God, and, like Abraham, that was accounted to him for righteousness. God, in the death of His Son, wiped out the sin of Samson’s life, as he did with David’s sin and Paul’s sin. We are told of the sin so we might see the grace and patience of God, not so that we can judge and condemn those who have gone before us.

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  63. Chas, I remember reading that, too, about the concept of zero being figured out, and it was like “wait, how could you not have zero?” It would be like trying to do math without the idea of “10.”

    Chas, I dare you, in eternity, to go up to Samson and admit you never liked him very much.

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  65. This is really strange, but right when I came to the blog a minute ago, I saw that both yesterday’s and today’s News/Politics thread had 28 comments, both yesterday’s and today’s Prayer thread had 14, and both Daily Threads had 64.

    This comment changes the number, as do any other comments that came in while I typed this, but I thought it was sort of cool that the numbers matched up like that. 🙂

    Now to go read what I’ve missed…

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  66. I enjoyed reading about all the morning routines — of people and animals. 😉

    Samson — I am comforted by the fact he appears in the heroes of faith chapter in Hebrews. God can and does do so much in and through very flawed people. A reassuring thought.

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  67. Not often, but occasionally, like tonight, Elvera is watching TV. She wants to see it to the end. I try to explain to her that there is no end. It keeps on going. She spears to understand what I’m saying.
    But she is watching it to the end.
    Like in a movie, I suppose.

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  68. My high school piano student came for her lesson today instead of yesterday. Her two lessons this month have gone very well. She had extra time to practice over the holidays, so last week’s lesson was well-prepared. Plus, she had her wisdom teeth extracted early this month, and one quadrant of her mouth is causing her more discomfort than the rest, so she has not been able to play her saxophone comfortably, so her band director allows her to go into a practice room during band rehearsal and practice piano instead. The extra piano time has served her well, as she has made remarkable progress on her contest piano solo coming up in several weeks. She’s really turned a corner on it, and it’s exciting to hear her play an allegro movement with increasing speed and accuracy as the preparation weeks go on.

    Today was the first day she was able to play her saxophone again without too much trouble, and she had another band rehearsal tonight after she left here, following her piano lesson after school. Glad she’s feeling better, and also happy that she used her time so well when she wasn’t able to do all the things she’s accustomed to doing.

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  69. I remember when a day’s programming did come to an end, Chas, and the station would go off the air until whenever the next morning. Then there’d be static, and we’d turn off the old black and white.

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  70. I remember staying up late one night when I was very young and my dad (unbeknownst somehow to my mom, I guess), told me I could sit up with him watching TV in the living room. I still remember watching this old movie — the only scene I recall was someone brushing snow off a window pane to peer inside, B&W of course — and being so excited that I’d be able to stay up ALL NIGHT LONG.

    I think my dad fell asleep in his chair shortly after that and I probably didn’t last much longer, eventually figuring out that staying up all night wasn’t all it was cracked up to be after all.

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  71. They used to go off the air. They played the National Anthem and had a test pattern.
    AT Purdue, I put my radio on the school FM Station. It went off at ten and came on again at 6 a.m. That would wake me.
    She’s still up. I’m going to get her in a few minutes.
    She is usually asleep by this time. I don’t know how long she would stay up if I didn’t get her.

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  72. I remember the test patterns and the National Anthem. Seems like it came later than 10 p.m., though, maybe closer to 1 a.m.? They probably pushed the time back through the years. I guess I must have stayed up late as a kid more than I remember. (I still remember getting up late one Friday night not feeling well and sitting on the sofa as my mom folded clothes & Twilight Zone was on.)

    Funny how little snippets and moments, routine though they were, remain fresh in your mind for some reason.

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  73. It’s the weekend!! This getting back to the routine of getting up at 6 and out the door around 8 takes some doing. I like my lazy habits of sleeping in until at least 7. or was it 8??! I suppose that would depend on whether or not I had a good book to read the night before.

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  74. Jo, can you do more “prep work” the night before and get up later? When I worked in Chicago, I worked at 8:00, my alarm was set for 7:00, and I had a half-hour drive! (And yes, I made it to work on time. I just was determined enough that the first digit of my wake-up time would not be a 6 that I made it work.) I showered the night before, chose and ironed my clothes the night before, made my lunch the night before, and ate breakfast at work rather than at home. In the morning I had only to brush my teeth, use the bathroom, dress, do my hair, and put on my makeup. Then I grabbed my lunch from the fridge and went out the door. Since I’m not at the peak of alertness in the morning, anything I needed to take with me to work (other than my lunch) was set by the front door the night before.

    Usually I ended up waking up just before my alarm went off, but that only added two or three minutes to my time, and it allowed me to get to bed at 10:30 or 11:00 and still get nearly enough sleep. A later work schedule would have worked better for me (I had the 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. shift in Phoenix, and that was ideal for me), but I made that one work since I had no desire to go to bed even earlier than 10:30 (the bedtime I chafed against at 20), nor to get up any earlier than 7:00, and I made it work.

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  76. One of my first jobs after college was with a publishing company in Hollywood. I had to be there at 8 a.m. and I lived maybe 20+ miles away. In rush-hour traffic, that was a challenge.

    A big challenge.

    I remember many crazy, zig-zag drives to get there on time. The top boss, a suit-wearing woman named Vern with a very severe short haircut, was known to be waiting in the hallway, clipboard in hand, marking down who was naughty or nice as the elevator doors opened on our office floor.

    Groan.

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