45 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-26-17”

  2. Hmm. If I hadn’t kissed my husband goodbye, would I have been first?

    He forgot his phone a result and had to return home to get it . . .

    Up way too early for a long day.

    QOD: How do you feel about the book of Judges?

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  5. We are in the book of Judges in SS now. I don’t rightly know how to express it. Samuel was the only really good one. The others mostly delivered Israel from their enemies, but there was no real spiritual guidance. I have lots of problems understanding all that.

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  6. Good morning, all, from Atlanta where the wind blows cool today. I had one window open in the night. It was too cool for all to be open.

    Chas, that is not snow. It is the water in the salt marsh pond on Pinckney Istand between the mainland and Hilton Head Island. That is where we hiked while on vacation. It is a delightful place for viewing different types of birds and other coastal creatures. It gets pretty loud out there with all the commotion from the birds.

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  7. I got to see my young cousin in his carseat yesterday. My cousin dropped by the office for their taxes. The baby boy, toddler now since he is walking, was a snowflake baby. They are called that because they are born from frozen embryos. Also, another cousin was the surrogate mother for him. It was quite a journey he had tto arrive as the lively little boy I saw yesterday.

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  8. Before I questioned “snow”, I wondered about snow in ‘Lanna. So I went back and it looked like snow was on the trees. I see now that I was mistaken, but it looked like it then.

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  9. Good Morning Everyone. I am coordinating the haz/mat cleanup of a motel that Guy decided to take the listing for. First we had to have the residents evicted. I have gotten bids for clean-up–that is costing around $35,000, yes THOUSAND. The start today. We have already hired a security company to patrol it. We had to get a fence company to put a security fence around the property. I am not so confident in the security company because the coded lock they put on the fence is the ADDRESS OF THE PROPERTY. If you were a criminal wouldn’t that be the first combination you would check? I have also had to find a wild life company (out of Atlanta) to trap the feral cat colony that lives in and on the property.
    The bank wanted us to take inventory of mini-fridges, coffee pots, etc. The men from both cleaning companies who bid on the clean-up told me they wouldn’t let their wives go there. One told me he took his brother in law and they were both armed (conceal/carry). I told him my husband had already put his foot down and forbidden me to go. I managed to get out of it with Guy.
    I keep suggesting that we could save a whole lot of time, money, and misery if we just contacted the local fire department and asked if they would like to burn it down for a training exercise. I can’t get anyone to take me seriously

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  10. Something is wrong when people spend tens of thousands of dollars to have a baby, others abort babies, and the ones who want to adopt can’t because it is such an horrendous process and you wait years and years in limbo to spend tens of thousands of dollars to adopt.

    Remember in 1997, BG cost $80K before she ever drew her first breath.

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  12. Morning ya’ll….cold and gorgeous in this forest today….time to clean, get caught up on laundry…and then a trip into town for doggie vet apps…..Lulah will need a sedative before her shots….what a neurotic dog we have!

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  13. I don’t think the judges were meant to be spiritual leaders, they were military and political leaders, although they did receive direct revelation from the Lord in order to carry out their role. It was the priests and the prophets who were supposed to give spiritual guidance to the people. In the cases where the judge was also the prophet, such as Deborah, she had Barack do the role of military leader. Samuel didn’t lead the people in battle either. God did not seem to like to mix the roles of spiritual and military leadership – recall that David could not build the temple because he was a man of blood.

    I remember reading a commentator on the book of Judges (I cannot remember who it was, but it was a man) who pointed out that it is the women in the book of Judges who mark the slow disintegration of the children of Israel. The book begins with the story of Othniel and Achsah, and ends with the story of the Levite and his concubine. However, the story of Ruth, in the Hebrew Bible, is also attached to the book of Judges, and it marks the beginning of God’s redemption of Israel. Hannah’s story follows in I Samuel. Sometimes, people try to say that the role of women is limited in Scripture, but Judges, Ruth, and I Samuel show that they play a vital role in the redemption story.

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  14. We once checked into a motel, which had a Hazmat vehicle outside it. It was obvious work was going on in the place. We had stayed there several times and always like the place. However, the young lady checking us in was crying and told us she was supposed to be off and they wouldn’t let her go. Her manager was glaring at her and standing right next to her. There were several people in line before and after us.

    We walked to our room, which was the time I told my husband I would not stay there. Our room looked untouched, but the scene with the young woman upset me. I was not sure if it was a family situation or what. I wondered in retrospect about slavery, of course, but at the time that was not as well known. Nor would I have known who to contact.

    We did ask to get our room cancelled. The manager was not happy. It was a very unpleasant experience and we have never stopped there again. We still do not know what was going on at that hotel. It had clearly changed hands.

    We have has a couple of unpleasant experiences with hotels changing hands.

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  15. When I think of the book of Judges I am saddened. The downward trend of God’s people is heartbreaking. The horror of how bad things got is frightening. I wonder if we in the church are in a similar place? If so, it is a sad and frightening thought. OTOH, as Roscuro points out, there is that salvation plan. God weeps even as He reaches down to us.

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  16. Kim, that sounds like a big undertaking.

    I worked late, had to go out to cover the annual countywide homeless count — where volunteers with clipboards walk or drive around marking down tallies of how many homeless people they see on the sidewalks, in parks, sleeping in cars.

    Photographer and I headed straight for the area of town where the most homeless live on sidewalks — the city councilman (a former LAPD officer) was there, of course, it’s an election year — along with one of the social workers I’ve known from the dog park (she and her partner have standard poodles) going back years. She’s great, is a former LA County sheriff’s deputy who takes no guff, but has a soft side & a good rapport with the people who may be willing to get help out there. Always interesting just to stand back and watch her in action doing what she does best, connecting with these folks.

    Anyway, it was in the low 40s, hard to imagine sleeping on a sidewalk in a tent on a night like that. I had a conversation also with a couple of the volunteers (one of whom I knew) who both had moved here from NY and said they were grateful for their heated car seats. 🙂

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  18. DJ, Now do you know why your bathroom update was a “break”? 😉

    Kathaleena, when I was a child my father’s work schedule was such that he had a long weekend every 5 or 6 weeks. It seems we always went somewhere on those weekends. I remember checking into a hotel in Vicksburg, MS. When my mother pulled the sheets back on the bed she refused to let any of us sleep in it. She sat up all night. I think daddy and I dozed in another chair and we left a dawn. The man could fall asleep anywhere.

    I have to go out today and drop off leases and keys. I pulled a beautiful blouse out of my closet a bought a month or so ago at White House Black Market. It has some wrinkles so I tried the old dab it with water and use the hair dryer trick to get them out. I accidentally touched the blouse and there is a small hole burned it it now. I am sick. I went to pick up the price tag out of the trash and was sicker. Luckily I got it at 60% off, but still…..

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  21. I’m assuming today’s header is coots? I’ve never managed to get a photo of them, though I have seen them a few times.

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  24. Chas, I haven’t started taxes yet this year, but my recollection is that there is a button somewhere below the list of charities to add another charity. I don’t remember it being tricky. Let me know where you find it – it might save me time when I get started.

    Are you using the online version, or the version you install on your computer?

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  26. Taxes: I call a guy and make an appointment.

    I left the Jeep for service today and have a Prius loaner. I cant tell if it has heated seats or not, dash is too busy and nothing’s where it is in my Jeep.

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  27. I paid about $60.00 For a disk.
    Kevin
    I’ll look for the button. I haven’t noticed one so far.
    It should be immediately obvious somewhere on the page, but I haven’t seen it.

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  28. It’s a good day for stuffing W-2s into envelopes.

    I don’t know the name of the type birds we saw. But I know the location would be wonderful for Cheryl to visit. It’s an easy flat hike or bicycle ride to see a multitude of birds. I only had my tablet as a camera so pardon the poor quality of photos. Some good cameras and tripods can be seen on location there.

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  29. Kevin, you can “PRINT” “DELETE” “CLOSE” but nothing to add. I changed the Hendersonville Vol Fire dept to Friendly Avenue BC. But I can’t do that to many.
    Frustrating. There has to be a way. (The ones that are there are carry-over from last year.)

    If I took it to a tax preparer, I would have to gather the material just the same. If things worked like they should, it would be just as simple to enter the data myself since I have to organize it all.
    If the program worked, that is.

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  30. I went back to my 2015 forms. They are the same. I’m doing something wrong. But the process should be immediately obvious. How did I get the present forms on there? There is a site for mutual help (i.e. If someone knows, he answers. There in no TurboTax help that I can find.)

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  32. I found it!
    There is no way to do it through the “forms” application.
    But it you go to the “Let me help” procedure, you can add as much as you like. Quite simple, really.
    But I like to add data as I get it, so I do “forms” a bit at a time. It still bugs me that I can’t do it that way.

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  34. Kim – I realize it’s just business, but do you feel bad when you have to evict people? I still feel bad about evicting the McKs, even though I know it was the right thing to do.

    And when we bought this house, which is a two-family home, as you know, we knew that that meant the family living upstairs would be evicted (glad we didn’t have to do that ourselves). I felt bad for them, & prayed that God would lead them to another nice apartment.

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  35. Kizzie, this was an 80 room motel. People weren’t living there because they had a better choice. I found a Facebook page belonging to the motel and while some of the people looked like they belonged living there and were pretty much what you would expect there was a photo a mother had posted of her 3 little girls and another where a woman posted the socks and onesies she had bought for her baby girl. I don’t know if she was pregnant, had custody, or didn’t. It still choked me up that children were living in that filth.
    I have never dealt with eviction and didn’t this time either. Guy met the sheriff’s deputies there and they did it. It isn’t anywhere you nor I would belong and I am sure some of the people there didn’t intend to end up there.

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  38. I know Mumsee, I think that is why it hurt my heart as much as it did. 😦

    I talked to the cleaning company this afternoon. The manager said she had never seen so many roaches in her life and that the waste management company hauled away 7 dumpsters today and tomorrow they are dedicating a driver and truck to do nothing but empty their dumpsters.

    It is disgusting

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  39. We gave up on Turbo Tax last year and went with H&R Block. Mr. Engineer didn’t like that Turbo Tax wanted us to buy all sorts of other products when we could get it all in one swing with H&R Block. He’s happy.

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  40. Not that expensive to get someone to do it all for you. And for those of us who are math deficient, it’s also much safer.

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  41. My husband does repair work to H & R Block returns. Probably they have some preparers better than others. Not all are as thorough as should be because it takes extra time. They move then through mass production at some locations. Just be sure to inform them of everything that could apply to get your full refund or to pay the least that can be verified as correct.

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  42. For a while, my mom (who would have turned 80 today) worked for H & R Block, & later for an accounting business in town. She enjoyed that kind of work.

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  44. Family friend / CPA does mine, he’s good and I like seeing the same guy year after year.

    I have absolutely no desire to try to do my own taxes. Ever. 🙂

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  45. Doing taxes is taxing.

    QoD- Judges is a hard book to read, but necessary to get a full picture of Israel’s history. It also shows that the Bible was God-breathed, because no man would write such a negative view of his nation’s history otherwise. Not many histories do so to such an extreme. Judges and the other historical books all show the bad with the good.

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