I thought I had told you about Vernon. But evidently not.
In 1953, I was sitting at my desk at Carolina when this guy I knew, just barely, we had had a beer together and chatted. But I didn’t know him real well. Vernon Fash.
Vernon was also in his first year. He says we knew each other at Murray Vocational School in Charleston where he graduated. I went there for six weeks. Another story.
Anyhow:
Vernon began telling me about an experience he had with a woman. Then the spiritual repercussions. Long story, but he trusted Christ. II didn’t think much about it at the time. It was Al Tolley that got me involved in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.
Anyhow. Vernon became one of my friends. I thought I had mentioned him before, Evidently not..
But Vernon changed his major from engineering to English and went to Southwestern Seminary after graduation. After Southwestern, he pastored a small church in SC, and later went into the AF as a chaplain. He retired from the Chaplaincy and moved to Wilmington, NC.
Vernon and Byrdie are long time friends. Elvera and I attended their wedding.
Lots of things I could say.
But I have him on the prayer thread.
Well, where do I start? First Mr. P’s Baby Boy called him yesterday and said he was too sick to come help. Yeah, I wish I had thought of that excuse. Either way it led to me laying about 400SF of sod. My dad taught me to cross lay it, but with our narrow back yard, I laid it linear.
I also dragged out my engineering skills Saturday. Mr. P had all sorts of parts and pieces to the tubing/pipe he had purchased. I noticed he was duct taping tubing together and while I understand that duct tape fixes everything and is a modern miracle, it isn’t completely water resistant. So I started digging through parts and pieces and asked “Why don’t you…..” I was told that wasn’t how it went together, so I snapped it together and walked away. Turns out we had to go to Home Depot for more. We did argue yesterday about how much space to leave away from the fence for a flower bed. I wanted 2 feet, we compromised at 18 inches. I also won another flower bed in the corner. I also was reminded of how different Mr. P is from all the other men in my life. All of this back breaking labor and sweat and frustration and there wasn’t a single curse word. I had to stop and say something to him about it.
I was upset yesterday afternoon when I went to the garage and the storage shed to find my “sharp shooter”, a shovel that is long and narrow, and it wasn’t there. I don’t know where all of my stuff has disappeared to. I don’t realize I no longer have it until I can’t find it. 😦
Anyway, Guy is back from his ski vacation so today should be a nightmare, so I may as well face it and get started.
Vernon Fash finished Carolina a year ahead of me and went to Southwestern Seminary.
On 9 June, 1957 Elvera and I were married. We bought a house trailer in Columbia, and in September we had it moved to Fort Worth while we drove out in my 50 Chevy. When we arrived, the trailer wasn’t there. So, we got a room at the guest hall at the seminary. Bill Moyers was the receptionist. It was Sunday evening and Elvera and I got in my car and started driving around Fort Worth without purpose or direction.
Fort Worth is a big town. Population around 250,000 in 1957. We happened to be driving down West Berry St., we were passing Travis Avenue BC just as the evening service ended, and I heard someone holler “Charlie”.
VERNON FASH.
Vernon and Byrdie took us in until our trailer came.
Vernon also got me the part time job I had at USDA Soil Conservation Service.
Oh rkessler we are having the same here…must be going north to south or south to north!! 🙂
What an incredible blessing to have such life long friends Chas….it would appear you are both twice blessed….
Wonderful tale of lifelong Christian friendship, Chas. I’m praying this treatment will vanquish that cancer and be successful, it sounds like it has a good shot at doing so.
The cat woke me up early (6 a.m.) which was good since I had to haul all of the Salvation Army stuff out onto the front porch. So good to get all those boxes and bags out of the house! they’re supposed to pick it up today but they always advise you to get everything labeled and outside for them by 7 a.m. Seems like I’ve had pickups now ever few months for going on year 2 now.
Meanwhile, I’m hitting one of those “I can’t go on” periods with the house, so I suppose I need a break of some kind. But I often snap out of those moods within half a day or so — On the list to do most immediately:
1/ Call the plumber back to snake the kitchen sink (and main line?). Also need to see if he can hike up the temperature on my shower, it is one of those new fixture models and the guys who put it in didn’t set it high enough for my tastes. I like hot showers and baths, not warm. 😦
2/ Get a junk hauler scheduled to clear out some of the things from the garage and patio (like the old toilet that’s still sitting out there).
3/ Call drywall people who gave me one of the earlier bids to see when they can do the work. I dread this job so much but that ceiling needs to come down and be replaced. In the meantime, since it’ll be open in there and I already have a wall light switch in the bedroom (that currently goes to nothing), I want to also get a ceiling light/fan fixture put in. Real estate pal says I need to deal with that up front / first, so maybe these drywall guys have someone who can do that as well.
4/ I need to get that foundation work done, which means pestering real estate pal again so he can pester roofers. That’s holding up the wood window repair and the wood window repair is, ultimately, what is holding up any exterior (or interior) painting — not that I’m ready to paint yet, but I really want to get all of that done asap before we wind up in fall again with a rainy season upon us (I’m an optimist and have decided our drought has ended). Along with the foundation fix, they will need to fix the buckled portion of my driveway.
5/ I mentioned to real estate pal that I’d like a wood floor in the kitchen and he hit the proverbial roof. 🙂 NOOOOoooo. You can only do tile floors in a kitchen. I’m stubborn though. But I don’t know if I’m up to much more work in that kitchen beyond a new floor and maybe new cabinet doors. I’ll clearly need a pep talk from Kim.
But first things first. Plumber and drywall people.
Sorry, DJ, you are working on an ancient house and I am fairly certain they did not have electric fans. You may hire a couple of people to stand in your room, waving ostrich feathers or palmetto leaves or whatever.
You can’t see details of color on those sandhill cranes since they were some distance away. I couldn’t tell for sure if they were Canada geese or sandhill cranes, but thinking they were probably sandhills, I zoomed in and got several shots.
Don’t complain to me Missy. I am operating on half my caffeine intake since last Wednesday and I told you I would give you until Summer before we start on the kitchen. That gives you just over 3 months to rest up. 🙂
(You do realize I am joking?)
The kitchen is the only place we did not finish the flooring. I wanted wood, we do laminate as we are cheap and can do that ourselves. But we heard it was difficult. I did not see how it could be more difficult than my beautiful fifty year old linoleum… You have me convinced that it will be laminate wood floor.
Roscuro, I enjoyed listening to the Dvorak 8th Symphony movements you posted this weekend. (But I played them in the actual order, not the order you posted, as I went about work this morning.) 😉
The 3rd movement reminds me a lot of his Slavonic Dances, which I love.
I used to never put salad dressing on my salad, unless I used some mustard. Now I generally add olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It is supposed to help with the digestion of the salad and it tastes really really good.
On salad, what Mumsee said, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Not that I eat salad that much these days. My mother always made sure to have lettuce with the main meal – she reminds me, in that respect, of the character of Mrs. Bagnet from Dickens’ Bleak House: “Mr. George says to himself, “She’s as usual, washing greens. I never saw her, except upon a baggage-waggon, when she wasn’t washing greens!” – until I felt like salad would come out my ears.
6, I’m glad you enjoyed it. We are also playing the first movement of this Piano Concerto for the concert, which is my least favorite – not just because Tchaikovsky isn’t one of my favorite composers, but also because the thing begins in five flats, and at the beginning, we have a bunch of triple stops. 6 will know what I mean when I say it is much more difficult to play triple stops in flats than in sharps.
I used to never eat dressing on salad, then I discovered French dressing, which I like. But most restaurants don’t carry French dressing, and I rarely bother to keep a bottle in my fridge. Then some restaurant had raspberry vinaigarette (sp?), which sounded good, so now I take that if a restaurant doesn’t have French and does have some variety of that, and we have a bottle in our fridge. But “no dressing, thanks” is still my response about half the time. At Subway, I finish a sandwich with mayo and a small amount of vinegar (no oil).
Michelle, did you mention on here at some point having read the book and/or seen the movie (documentary), Life, Animated? I got the book (but haven’t yet read it) and my husband and I watched the movie last night. I hadn’t expected it to be a documentary, but it was very interesting. I don’t remember for sure where I first got the connection to the “story,” although I know I read an article or two online, but it might have been from you. (http://lifeanimated.net/ ) (It’s about an autistic boy who is pulled “out” by his identification with Disney characters.)
Roscuro, definitely know what you’re talking about with triple stops in flat keys. And I don’t particularly care to play my viola in any flat key, but especially when there are lots of flats, as I miss hearing that sympathetic ring of the open strings that occurs more frequently in the sharp keys.
And now I’m thinking of offbeats in the key of F, for example, for us poor violists and second violinists — rest, F, rest, F, rest, B-flat, rest, B-flat, ad nauseum. 😉 Dull and dry; though getting to C on the G string helps bring a little more resonance and excitement for us violists, given our low C string. 🙂
I do like playing the piano in D-flat major, though — the keyboard topography is a great assist, and I make fewer mistakes than I do in keys with three or four sharps or flats in the key signature.
You’ll have to get out of the violin section and switch to the piano part for the Tchaikovsky, Roscuro. 🙂
What other repertoire are you doing on the program besides the Dvorak and Tchaikovsky?
I know I have shared with you about the 90 year old woman who lives in my town. She still goes to work every day at a bank. She is now their “ambassador”. She started running when she was 60 and I don’t know how many marathon she has run. Her husband was a relative of Dvorak. Only here it is pronounced Dee VOR rack. 🙂
No thank you – to playing the piano for the Tchaikovsky. Just thinking about all those big chords makes my hands hurt. The Romantic era of the piano was not intended for my handspan.
The other piece we are playing is Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. That too is a lot of fun to play. This course will be over after the concert this coming weekend, so I’m so glad that I actually get to play one of my favorite symphonies, and a piece by Mendelssohn, who is one of my favorite composers – with an orchestra. It hasn’t been easy to go to the practices when I’ve been so sick, but I always end up with more energy by the end of the rehearsal than I began with. I’m going to miss playing.
LOVE “The Hebrides.” I’ve never played that, except in a brief arrangement for piano solo which, while nice, is not nearly as satisfying as hearing the full orchestral version.
Always order dressing on the side, that way you can use just a dab of it where you need to — I never use all they give me and prefer to use just what I want rather than get it poured all over the salad before it even gets to me.
Husband’s aunt is 86 and she runs several marathons in a year – not to mention the half marathons and stair climbs and the Grouse Grind which she does almost everyday there is no snow! She’s incredible.
I forgot about that photo–but yes, it was only February and the red-winged blackbird males were in place telling other males they’d found prime nesting spots, in preparation for the arrival of the females soon.
I’m betting both the 90-year-old runner in Kim’s town and Kare’s husband’s aunt look a lot younger than their years. I was always amazed at how youthful the winners of races looked when their names were called to come up and get their medals. They’d announce the winners by age group, and they’d all look about 10, 15, 20 years younger than their category!
Re the blackbird photo, it has a bit of a three-dimensional feel. If you were directly in front of the bird (looking at him face-to-face), you’d see his red epaulets puffed out. Here you can see that he has the red flared up off the yellow. He can also put black feathers over the epaulets to hide them from view (you may see just a hint of color at the edges) when he is being peaceful, as for example when a flock of males are feeding together on the ground. So he can show anything from calm and peaceful to war paint, depending on whether he’s displaying black feathers, red and yellow, or flashing the red ones.
Yes, that was me, Cheryl. I liked the book better than the documentary/movie. It was of great encouragement to several friends whose children have Asperger’s.
Did the math. At my father-in-law’s funeral and/or visitation was at least 50% of our average weekly attendance in people from our church–more than 50% when you count only teens and adults. Now, these are people who have been praying for him through the years, and many have asked us periodically how he is doing. But he has only once come to our church (when my husband was ordained as an elder), and my in-laws live in a different city from where we attend church, and many people come from quite a distance to attend–none from the town in which the funeral was held.
“Family” can definitely be broader than blood relations. (My in-laws’ church has at least twice the attendance of ours, and is attended by both my parents-in-law and my sister-in-law and her husband, but as far as we know the only people from their church were the two pastors. And they’re local! But half our church came.)
Progress on the house: Ceiling guys will get started early Saturday morning (they say a 3-day job); plumber is coming Thursday morning to snake out the kitchen sink/and mainline and to adjust my shower temperature so it’s hotter; a couple foundation guys coming for bids.
And I have most of tomorrow off (since I won’t be going in to work until 5 p.m. for the election shift) to scramble around here and get things hauled out of the bedroom.
It’s progress, even though it really doesn’t *look* like it around here. 😦
Strong winds out of the Southwest tonight. If you hear of a drowning in Lake Michigan, it might be because the wind carried me 250 miles across Illinois.
Wandering Views 
Good morning everyone but Jo and Tychicus.
Sweet dreams Jo.
Good afternoon Tychicus. j
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I thought I had told you about Vernon. But evidently not.
In 1953, I was sitting at my desk at Carolina when this guy I knew, just barely, we had had a beer together and chatted. But I didn’t know him real well. Vernon Fash.
Vernon was also in his first year. He says we knew each other at Murray Vocational School in Charleston where he graduated. I went there for six weeks. Another story.
Anyhow:
Vernon began telling me about an experience he had with a woman. Then the spiritual repercussions. Long story, but he trusted Christ. II didn’t think much about it at the time. It was Al Tolley that got me involved in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.
Anyhow. Vernon became one of my friends. I thought I had mentioned him before, Evidently not..
But Vernon changed his major from engineering to English and went to Southwestern Seminary after graduation. After Southwestern, he pastored a small church in SC, and later went into the AF as a chaplain. He retired from the Chaplaincy and moved to Wilmington, NC.
Vernon and Byrdie are long time friends. Elvera and I attended their wedding.
Lots of things I could say.
But I have him on the prayer thread.
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Well, where do I start? First Mr. P’s Baby Boy called him yesterday and said he was too sick to come help. Yeah, I wish I had thought of that excuse. Either way it led to me laying about 400SF of sod. My dad taught me to cross lay it, but with our narrow back yard, I laid it linear.
I also dragged out my engineering skills Saturday. Mr. P had all sorts of parts and pieces to the tubing/pipe he had purchased. I noticed he was duct taping tubing together and while I understand that duct tape fixes everything and is a modern miracle, it isn’t completely water resistant. So I started digging through parts and pieces and asked “Why don’t you…..” I was told that wasn’t how it went together, so I snapped it together and walked away. Turns out we had to go to Home Depot for more. We did argue yesterday about how much space to leave away from the fence for a flower bed. I wanted 2 feet, we compromised at 18 inches. I also won another flower bed in the corner. I also was reminded of how different Mr. P is from all the other men in my life. All of this back breaking labor and sweat and frustration and there wasn’t a single curse word. I had to stop and say something to him about it.
I was upset yesterday afternoon when I went to the garage and the storage shed to find my “sharp shooter”, a shovel that is long and narrow, and it wasn’t there. I don’t know where all of my stuff has disappeared to. I don’t realize I no longer have it until I can’t find it. 😦
Anyway, Guy is back from his ski vacation so today should be a nightmare, so I may as well face it and get started.
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Vernon Fash finished Carolina a year ahead of me and went to Southwestern Seminary.
On 9 June, 1957 Elvera and I were married. We bought a house trailer in Columbia, and in September we had it moved to Fort Worth while we drove out in my 50 Chevy. When we arrived, the trailer wasn’t there. So, we got a room at the guest hall at the seminary. Bill Moyers was the receptionist. It was Sunday evening and Elvera and I got in my car and started driving around Fort Worth without purpose or direction.
Fort Worth is a big town. Population around 250,000 in 1957. We happened to be driving down West Berry St., we were passing Travis Avenue BC just as the evening service ended, and I heard someone holler “Charlie”.
VERNON FASH.
Vernon and Byrdie took us in until our trailer came.
Vernon also got me the part time job I had at USDA Soil Conservation Service.
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The header is what I want to do right now- fly away in the sunshine.
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Good morning! Wind and pollen here.
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Oh rkessler we are having the same here…must be going north to south or south to north!! 🙂
What an incredible blessing to have such life long friends Chas….it would appear you are both twice blessed….
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We got five inches yesterday, may get more today. Have I mentioned that I love the snow? It is much easier than doing chores in the mud.
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It is amazing how people keep popping up in our lives. It is like their is a Conductor running the show.
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Wonderful tale of lifelong Christian friendship, Chas. I’m praying this treatment will vanquish that cancer and be successful, it sounds like it has a good shot at doing so.
The cat woke me up early (6 a.m.) which was good since I had to haul all of the Salvation Army stuff out onto the front porch. So good to get all those boxes and bags out of the house! they’re supposed to pick it up today but they always advise you to get everything labeled and outside for them by 7 a.m. Seems like I’ve had pickups now ever few months for going on year 2 now.
Meanwhile, I’m hitting one of those “I can’t go on” periods with the house, so I suppose I need a break of some kind. But I often snap out of those moods within half a day or so — On the list to do most immediately:
1/ Call the plumber back to snake the kitchen sink (and main line?). Also need to see if he can hike up the temperature on my shower, it is one of those new fixture models and the guys who put it in didn’t set it high enough for my tastes. I like hot showers and baths, not warm. 😦
2/ Get a junk hauler scheduled to clear out some of the things from the garage and patio (like the old toilet that’s still sitting out there).
3/ Call drywall people who gave me one of the earlier bids to see when they can do the work. I dread this job so much but that ceiling needs to come down and be replaced. In the meantime, since it’ll be open in there and I already have a wall light switch in the bedroom (that currently goes to nothing), I want to also get a ceiling light/fan fixture put in. Real estate pal says I need to deal with that up front / first, so maybe these drywall guys have someone who can do that as well.
4/ I need to get that foundation work done, which means pestering real estate pal again so he can pester roofers. That’s holding up the wood window repair and the wood window repair is, ultimately, what is holding up any exterior (or interior) painting — not that I’m ready to paint yet, but I really want to get all of that done asap before we wind up in fall again with a rainy season upon us (I’m an optimist and have decided our drought has ended). Along with the foundation fix, they will need to fix the buckled portion of my driveway.
5/ I mentioned to real estate pal that I’d like a wood floor in the kitchen and he hit the proverbial roof. 🙂 NOOOOoooo. You can only do tile floors in a kitchen. I’m stubborn though. But I don’t know if I’m up to much more work in that kitchen beyond a new floor and maybe new cabinet doors. I’ll clearly need a pep talk from Kim.
But first things first. Plumber and drywall people.
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We had some light rain yesterday but now are headed into a warming period up into the 70s (though today will only get to 60).
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Wonderful memories, Chas. Thanks for sharing them.
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Sorry, DJ, you are working on an ancient house and I am fairly certain they did not have electric fans. You may hire a couple of people to stand in your room, waving ostrich feathers or palmetto leaves or whatever.
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You can’t see details of color on those sandhill cranes since they were some distance away. I couldn’t tell for sure if they were Canada geese or sandhill cranes, but thinking they were probably sandhills, I zoomed in and got several shots.
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Don’t complain to me Missy. I am operating on half my caffeine intake since last Wednesday and I told you I would give you until Summer before we start on the kitchen. That gives you just over 3 months to rest up. 🙂
(You do realize I am joking?)
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3 months …
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Wood floors in kitchens are awesome – I love mine! I’ve had it for 4 or 5 years and I would never go to tile.
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My friend (I sent you pictures) loves hers and has had them for about 12 or so years
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The kitchen is the only place we did not finish the flooring. I wanted wood, we do laminate as we are cheap and can do that ourselves. But we heard it was difficult. I did not see how it could be more difficult than my beautiful fifty year old linoleum… You have me convinced that it will be laminate wood floor.
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When was the last time you ate a salad with NO dressing?
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I rarely put dressing on salad. 🙂
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Chas, thanks for sharing your stories about Vernon. He’s in my prayers.
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Roscuro, I enjoyed listening to the Dvorak 8th Symphony movements you posted this weekend. (But I played them in the actual order, not the order you posted, as I went about work this morning.) 😉
The 3rd movement reminds me a lot of his Slavonic Dances, which I love.
Thanks for posting them.
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I used to never put salad dressing on my salad, unless I used some mustard. Now I generally add olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It is supposed to help with the digestion of the salad and it tastes really really good.
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On salad, what Mumsee said, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Not that I eat salad that much these days. My mother always made sure to have lettuce with the main meal – she reminds me, in that respect, of the character of Mrs. Bagnet from Dickens’ Bleak House: “Mr. George says to himself, “She’s as usual, washing greens. I never saw her, except upon a baggage-waggon, when she wasn’t washing greens!” – until I felt like salad would come out my ears.
6, I’m glad you enjoyed it. We are also playing the first movement of this Piano Concerto for the concert, which is my least favorite – not just because Tchaikovsky isn’t one of my favorite composers, but also because the thing begins in five flats, and at the beginning, we have a bunch of triple stops. 6 will know what I mean when I say it is much more difficult to play triple stops in flats than in sharps.
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I am very light on the salad dressing I use, which is a variety. I have also heard that it aids in digesting the greens.
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Mmm, balsamic dressing, that just makes me pucker up. 🙂 Love that stuff. And a little bit goes a long way.
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Ranch dressing on my salad, please. Nothing vinegary, please.
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I used to never eat dressing on salad, then I discovered French dressing, which I like. But most restaurants don’t carry French dressing, and I rarely bother to keep a bottle in my fridge. Then some restaurant had raspberry vinaigarette (sp?), which sounded good, so now I take that if a restaurant doesn’t have French and does have some variety of that, and we have a bottle in our fridge. But “no dressing, thanks” is still my response about half the time. At Subway, I finish a sandwich with mayo and a small amount of vinegar (no oil).
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Michelle, did you mention on here at some point having read the book and/or seen the movie (documentary), Life, Animated? I got the book (but haven’t yet read it) and my husband and I watched the movie last night. I hadn’t expected it to be a documentary, but it was very interesting. I don’t remember for sure where I first got the connection to the “story,” although I know I read an article or two online, but it might have been from you. (http://lifeanimated.net/ ) (It’s about an autistic boy who is pulled “out” by his identification with Disney characters.)
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Roscuro, definitely know what you’re talking about with triple stops in flat keys. And I don’t particularly care to play my viola in any flat key, but especially when there are lots of flats, as I miss hearing that sympathetic ring of the open strings that occurs more frequently in the sharp keys.
And now I’m thinking of offbeats in the key of F, for example, for us poor violists and second violinists — rest, F, rest, F, rest, B-flat, rest, B-flat, ad nauseum. 😉 Dull and dry; though getting to C on the G string helps bring a little more resonance and excitement for us violists, given our low C string. 🙂
I do like playing the piano in D-flat major, though — the keyboard topography is a great assist, and I make fewer mistakes than I do in keys with three or four sharps or flats in the key signature.
You’ll have to get out of the violin section and switch to the piano part for the Tchaikovsky, Roscuro. 🙂
What other repertoire are you doing on the program besides the Dvorak and Tchaikovsky?
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I know I have shared with you about the 90 year old woman who lives in my town. She still goes to work every day at a bank. She is now their “ambassador”. She started running when she was 60 and I don’t know how many marathon she has run. Her husband was a relative of Dvorak. Only here it is pronounced Dee VOR rack. 🙂
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No thank you – to playing the piano for the Tchaikovsky. Just thinking about all those big chords makes my hands hurt. The Romantic era of the piano was not intended for my handspan.
The other piece we are playing is Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. That too is a lot of fun to play. This course will be over after the concert this coming weekend, so I’m so glad that I actually get to play one of my favorite symphonies, and a piece by Mendelssohn, who is one of my favorite composers – with an orchestra. It hasn’t been easy to go to the practices when I’ve been so sick, but I always end up with more energy by the end of the rehearsal than I began with. I’m going to miss playing.
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LOVE “The Hebrides.” I’ve never played that, except in a brief arrangement for piano solo which, while nice, is not nearly as satisfying as hearing the full orchestral version.
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We need a little Jacque in that Dee VOR rack. 🙂
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Running a marathon at 60+. Woo wee!
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Always order dressing on the side, that way you can use just a dab of it where you need to — I never use all they give me and prefer to use just what I want rather than get it poured all over the salad before it even gets to me.
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Husband’s aunt is 86 and she runs several marathons in a year – not to mention the half marathons and stair climbs and the Grouse Grind which she does almost everyday there is no snow! She’s incredible.
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https://www.grousemountain.com/grousegrind
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I forgot about that photo–but yes, it was only February and the red-winged blackbird males were in place telling other males they’d found prime nesting spots, in preparation for the arrival of the females soon.
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Sharp shot of that red-winged blackbird!
I’m betting both the 90-year-old runner in Kim’s town and Kare’s husband’s aunt look a lot younger than their years. I was always amazed at how youthful the winners of races looked when their names were called to come up and get their medals. They’d announce the winners by age group, and they’d all look about 10, 15, 20 years younger than their category!
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Well, except the teenagers. 🙂
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Re the blackbird photo, it has a bit of a three-dimensional feel. If you were directly in front of the bird (looking at him face-to-face), you’d see his red epaulets puffed out. Here you can see that he has the red flared up off the yellow. He can also put black feathers over the epaulets to hide them from view (you may see just a hint of color at the edges) when he is being peaceful, as for example when a flock of males are feeding together on the ground. So he can show anything from calm and peaceful to war paint, depending on whether he’s displaying black feathers, red and yellow, or flashing the red ones.
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Yes, that was me, Cheryl. I liked the book better than the documentary/movie. It was of great encouragement to several friends whose children have Asperger’s.
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Did the math. At my father-in-law’s funeral and/or visitation was at least 50% of our average weekly attendance in people from our church–more than 50% when you count only teens and adults. Now, these are people who have been praying for him through the years, and many have asked us periodically how he is doing. But he has only once come to our church (when my husband was ordained as an elder), and my in-laws live in a different city from where we attend church, and many people come from quite a distance to attend–none from the town in which the funeral was held.
“Family” can definitely be broader than blood relations. (My in-laws’ church has at least twice the attendance of ours, and is attended by both my parents-in-law and my sister-in-law and her husband, but as far as we know the only people from their church were the two pastors. And they’re local! But half our church came.)
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Very good blackbird shot.
Progress on the house: Ceiling guys will get started early Saturday morning (they say a 3-day job); plumber is coming Thursday morning to snake out the kitchen sink/and mainline and to adjust my shower temperature so it’s hotter; a couple foundation guys coming for bids.
And I have most of tomorrow off (since I won’t be going in to work until 5 p.m. for the election shift) to scramble around here and get things hauled out of the bedroom.
It’s progress, even though it really doesn’t *look* like it around here. 😦
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Strong winds out of the Southwest tonight. If you hear of a drowning in Lake Michigan, it might be because the wind carried me 250 miles across Illinois.
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We’re heading for a warm-up — 70s for the next week. But windy here, also, at times. And still cold at night.
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http://www.foxla.com/news/local-news/239911377-story
Free Pancake Day 3/7 !
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