58 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-16-17”

  2. And I presume that is little Ricky.
    Good morning Ricky and everyone else but Jo and Tychicus.
    Good afternoon Tychicus.
    Sweet dreams Jo.

    My body still thinks it’s 6:23.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. Thanks, Chas. I am in the family photo. The baby is my son Travis. The little girl who Dad is swinging is my niece, Brittney. She grew up to be an aeronautical engineer just like Dad. However, these days she is primarily a Mommy.

    Liked by 4 people

  5. I have a question for someone who might have training in this sort of thing.

    I was helping Elvera with laundry this morning. She happened to say, “I push the button but I couldn’t get the damm thing started”.

    That is not a trivial remark. She has never said damm, or anything like it before.
    She has never said, “darn, heck, golly, gee,” or any other modifier.

    I hesitate to mention that to anyone around here. And my DIL goes with her to the doctor.

    Question: Is this something I need to deal with? Or can I deal with. I can’t fuss at her, it’s not her that said it.
    I feel like I’m slowly losing her. But she still has a sweet disposition.

    Liked by 3 people

  6. The disease is incredibly frustrating to her and it also tends to lower inhibitions, so those completely out-of-character outbursts often happen. Your patience presence remains a daily comfort to Elvera. Some little warning from you to your son and DIL might be appropriate.

    Liked by 7 people

  7. It has been my experience and what I have heard from others that they lose their “filter”. Ex husband’s grandmother started sneaking cigarettes and smoking them. She started cursing. She had always been quite the lady. His aunt (by marriage) started calling the black aides who helped her “niggers” to their face. Luckily these women understood it wasn’t her so much as it was the disease. A lot of us think things that we would never let pass our lips. Now she doesn’t have the “gate keeper” to keep them in.

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  8. Good morning. It was in the twenties here last night. It seems we went from spring to winter and skipped summer and fall.

    Chas, I have no experience with things like that. You might find something on the web about it. Maybe try WebMD?

    I have a lot of things to attempt to accomplish today. Guess I better get Miss Bosley moving❤🐱

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  9. I’m so sorry, Chas. It must be hard to see Elvera slipping further into dementia. You are right that it is not her saying this, it’s the disease.

    I would tell your DIL and have her tell Elvera’s doctor. In addition to what Ricky and Kim mentioned above, sometimes medications can cause anxiety and other things that could increase these sorts of outbursts. Regardless, I do think her caregivers should know that she has said this, as it reveals more of the big picture of what she’s experiencing.

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Chas, Ricky said it well. I don’t know what form of dementia she has, but certain forms of dementia are known to destroy the centres of the frontal lobes that are used in self control. I mentioned a little while back that even if the disease changes her personality, she is still the same person. Just as we do not hold a person accountable for their actions if they are delirious or drugged; so we understand that it is the came with those who have advanced dementia. But it is like losing a loved one before they die, and it hurts to realize that people around will not see the person you knew. Hurting with you, Chas.

    Liked by 4 people

  15. Chas, in his Alzheimer’s my father-in-law sometimes did some very out-of-character things. He showed some aggression (he didn’t hit anyone, but he spoke with some aggression a couple of times, and we weren’t sure what he was capable of) and was put on medication that effectively eliminated it. A lady I knew became quite aggressive and rude, and she’d been known to be quite a lady. I don’t know whether medication was tried, but she ended up in a nursing home; medication would seem a better option.

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  16. Thanks Six. I let it “roll off my back” until I mentioned it here. Thanks for the advice and support, everyone. This was new to me. I haven’t said anything to her, and won’t.
    I will mention it to Linda (DIL) and Chuck.
    It isn’t serious.
    Yet.

    Liked by 3 people

  18. Re the header: this year we’ve had more of the dark-eyed juncos (aka snowbirds) than we usually get. Usually we’ll get six or eight of them, and this year we’ve often had two or three dozen in our yard. And usually they’re content to feed on the ground unless the ground is covered with snow and we haven’t put anything on the ground (my husband often scatters food for them), sometimes one will get desperate enough to go to a feeder. This year a lot of the new group don’t want to sit on the ground waiting for other birds’ leftovers, but is going directly to the feeders, especially the suet feeders. In fact, this left suet feeder has had juncos on it pretty much nonstop for hours at a time. Sometimes it will have a junco and another bird (an American tree sparrow or a downy woodpecker), but if a second junco tries to fly in, one gives way.

    I think that the one on the suet is a female; most of the ones we get our males, but this female confidently held her ground. I think that in flight this is a very pretty species, so I’ve tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to get photos of it flying. But here I saw that the second bird was going to make an attempt, so I set my camera on action mode, focused on the feeder, and waited to hit the button until it flew from the tree. Seen from above the birds are all black (or dark gray, in case of females), including their tails. Seen from below, they are white up to the neck, including their tails. But in flight they spread their tails and you get the pretty stripes and also a better look at the evenness of the necklace of color around its neck.

    As he came down, the female looked up at him but she didn’t flinch from her spot. Instead of coming all the way to the feeder, he changed his mind and kept going, down to the ground. But his landing gear is out now, and had she fled at his approach, he would have gladly taken her spot at the suet.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. My dad always used deer tallow for the birds. He just nailed a whole piece to a tree or put it in a cage type thing. We have done that, but found that it can be more expensive (if you have to actually buy it) than suet cakes.

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  20. From last night: Kevin B @ 9:53 pm – I’ve never noticed a difference in accent between California and Michigan. Is there one?

    Oh, yeah, dude! Seriously, though, Michiganders tend to put emphasis on the short A sound, whereas Californians have little or no accent. The problem with places like Arizona and California is the fact that in the last 70 years, many people form other parts of the country and world have moved there, making different accents all in one place. It’s also true of Florida, which has a lot of New Yorkers moving in, giving it a more Northern sound in places.

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  21. Kim, Bradford pears are planted in many places around Nashville, including as rows on the street side of many businesses. As mature trees, they have a boring sameness to them, even their flowers aren’t pretty, and their flowers stink like garbage. Their fall foliage is pretty, but that’s about it. And then I noticed that every major storm brought down half or a third of a tree here and there. A matched set, evenly spaced, of ten trees suddenly had a badly disfigured tree among them that needed to come down.

    Then I moved into my husband’s house and found that the driveway has four of these things along it (two on each side) . . . except that they don’t match, since one of our daughters was once sent out to prune the trees (she would have been 10 or 12) and misunderstood the instructions and cut limbs off the top of the two trees on the left of the driveway, effectively dwarfing those two trees. The girls’ mother planted those trees (and an unusual pain as she did so ended up being the alert that she had cancer), so they won’t come down, but they’re my last choice in terms of trees after seeing so many of them in Nashville, and seeing how ugly (boring) they are as mature trees and how poorly they withstand storms. And now, in blooming season, walking out to get the mail is a smelly prospect.

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  22. I had an aunt to “lost” the filters somewhat. I remember when she and one of my cousins (her daughter) came over to my house shortly after I’d bought it and moved in. I made some comment that there were things I’d like to change over time and she took one look at a shower curtain I’d just bought and said ‘Then I hope you’re getting rid of that!”

    Her daughter was embarrassed but I just laughed as I hadn’t been that sure about how it looked myself after I’d bought and hung it. Sure enough, I got rid of it, I decided, yeah, my aunt was right. 🙂 My cousins said she had begun just speaking her mind about everything to people, strangers even, offering rather blunt opinions that we normally would keep to ourselves.

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  23. Chas,

    I didn’t “like” your comment for the news, but instead, your caring response. She’s lucky to have someone who cares for and loves her, and notices even little changes. She needs that. 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

  30. The new action shot is, of course, two downy woodpeckers. (All of the photos today and two days ago were taken on our recent snow day. We got hundreds of birds to our tree that day, and sometimes they didn’t like it that another member of their species showed up.)

    Both of these birds are females. They were sitting just a few feet from each other in the tree, and I knew it was probably only a matter of time until one flew at the other, so I focused the camera and waited. The one at the bottom is the one that finally attacked. She was sitting to the right of the other one (our right) and down a couple of feet, and she exploded upward. But the top bird held her branch and the attacker retreated. I didn’t realize they were both females until I looked at the photo. Usually in these attacks the attacking bird is a male, and the second bird may be either male or female. (Female house finches seem more prone to attack than males, but in many species they are either equal or the male more likely to attack.)

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  32. Pretty birds! We are noticing more and more feathered friends and foes returning. Everyone seems to be up in arms of the return of the woodpecker/flickers. They can be very destructive on one’s house….so far the fake owl is doing the trick for us….but then again….they will notice he is not attacking….they will be above my dining room window nesting soon! Hoping the real owls return quickly….not only do they help with the woodpeckers…but we love listening to them call to one another!
    Chas my dear father in law lost his ability to speak….he could only make incoherent noises as Alzheimer’s progressed. How I loved that dear man….I knew he was still there and so did Mom S….she would become weary worn at times….the care giver does need support….remember that….we love you both! ❤

    Liked by 3 people

  34. Oh silly me, March Madness. I should know that working where I do, I’ve seen the emails and heard the chatter. Guess I just shut it all out until now when I’m remembering it.

    Carry on.

    Liked by 1 person

  36. Ok, I am locked in here As for a party on New well, it seems to have a mind of its own i typed i am and it typed the rest I am not really locked anywhere. Technology…what have we done?

    Liked by 1 person

  38. So, the computer is only about eleven years old but apparently, I neglected to update something, or a lot of something s. And this tablet, which husband was given about five years ago, thinks it knows what I want to say better than I do. More understanding for Janice and others who have been fighting this battle longer than have.

    Kim, she is eighteen plus, don,t kick yourself or others for how she turned out. Every child has to decide what to do with what he was given and there is no perfect way to raise them.

    Kevin, I hope your son is enjoying his flying lessons. Son has not been able to fly all winter due to weather, but he is looking forward to getting back in the air.
    Mumsee

    Liked by 4 people

  39. I had a quick lunch with Flyboy between his lesson and the start of his work shift. Sounds like everything went fine. He’s aiming for two or three lessons a week, weather permitting, and wants to have his license before he starts college in the fall.

    It’s a good thing we both like Taco Bell. He works at the airport, I work near the airport, and Taco Bell is nearby, so it’s easy for us to have lunch there between his lesson and his work shift.

    Liked by 5 people

  41. 🙂 Duke! Woof!

    Good piece from Ligonier on St. Patrick’s Day — and this portion brought a smile to me, my mom used to pin a little piece of orange cloth on my green dress every year, just in honor of our very Protestant heritage 🙂

    http://www.ligonier.org/blog/who-was-saint-patrick-and-should-christians-celebrate-st-patricks-day/

    __________________________________

    What casts a far greater shadow than his monument, however, is St. Patrick’s Day. And that day in the middle of March raises a significant question: Should Christians celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? If you do, you might want to consider wearing orange. Orange? Here’s why. After 1798 the color of green was closely associated with Roman Catholicism and orange with Protestantism—after William of Orange, the Protestant king. The holiday is certainly not to be used as means for excessive partying and celebration. But wearing orange and trying to tell people who St. Patrick really was might be a good way to celebrate. …
    ______________________________________

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  42. Ah, Patrick of Ireland would probably neither agree with the modern Protestant or Catholic. He may have been thoroughly orthodox in his beliefs on salvation, but he had aesthetic tendencies, and commended those who chose to live in celibacy:

    And there was one blessed Irish maiden, of adult age, noble and very beautiful, whom I baptized, and after a few days she came to us for a reason, and gave us to understand that she had received a command from God, and was informed that she was to become a virgin of Christ, and to draw near to God. Thanks be to God, six days after this she most excellently and eagerly entered on this state of life, which all the virgins of God now adopt, even against the will of their parents, even enduring reproaches and persecution from them, and notwithstanding they increase in number; and as for those who are born again in this way, we know not their number, except the widows and those who observe continency.
    From the confession of St. Patrick. Link:https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Most_Ancient_Lives_of_Saint_Patrick/The_Confession_of_St._Patrick

    So, Protestants can’t claim him for their own any more than the Catholics can.

    As for wearing orange, that might seem like a good Protestant thing to do, but as late as the mid 1800s here in Canada, namely Toronto, the Orange party was associated with violence and coercion (as were the Catholic party), as Dickens reported in 1842 in American Notes after visiting Toronto:

    It is a matter of deep regret that political differences should have run high in this place, and led to most discreditable and disgraceful results. It is not long since guns were discharged from a window in this town at the successful candidates in an election, and the coachman of one of them was actually shot in the body, though not dangerously wounded. But one man was killed on the same occasion; and from the very window whence he received his death, the very flag which shielded his murderer (not only in the commission of his crime, but from its consequences), was displayed again on the occasion of the public ceremony performed by the Governor General, to which I have just adverted. Of all the colours in the rainbow, there is but one which could be so employed: I need not say that flag was orange. Link: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/675/675-h/675-h.htm#page167

    With such an ugly history behind the orange and green in Ireland, which spilled over into areas that those who emigrated from Ireland came into, it would perhaps be wise of Christians to avoid deliberately poking those we disagree with in the eye.

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  45. My grandfather, who came to the US via Canada, apparently had several ‘Orange Order’ books and pamphlets that some younger relatives wound up inheriting — I don’t remember ever seeing the materials, but they were rather shocked as I recall

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  46. The third bird action photo from the other day is not an argument. It is a pair of house finches, with the male doing “courtship feeding” of his mate . . . in a snowstorm! Actually it wasn’t snowing all that hard right then, but it was snowing, not a time you expect to see breeding behavior.

    This particular male house finch is rather distinctive–I’ve noticed him on other times–because his coloring is more orange than red. Kinda gives a lie to the idea that only the brightest males are accepted by females, since clearly not all the house finches in our area would have paired up yet. (And when I was a child we had a very dull house finch nest in front of our house two years in a row–he was an extra good father, just not very brightly colored. The second year it was clearly the same male back again, but there was no telling whether he was with the same mate as the year before.)

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  47. Nice bird pictures today. We have all those here, too — lots of juncos, some downy woodpeckers, and fewer house finches.

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  48. Bible study early tomorrow morning, then home for a late-morning piano tuning. The hammer on the B below Middle C broke this week, so that needs repair. An easy fix, but one I can’t do. It’s been almost two years since the last tuning, so that’s needed, anyway.

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  49. DJ, it was nasty, on both sides. Canada had a Irish born minister in the first Canadian Parliament after Confederation who was assassinated by the Fenians – he was Irish Catholic himself, but wouldn’t put up with their Mafia-like ways. The Orange Order was Mafia-like themselves: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/orange-order/. In Ontarian politics and especially in Toronto, the only way to get ahead in politics was to be in the Order. My father’s family is old to Canada, but they come from Nova Scotia, so the culture is somewhat different, but even now, I have met people from old Ontarian families who espouse the same fierce anti-Catholic sentiment that the Orange Order fomented. An old farming family who used to attend our church were very supportive of the Protestant side during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the ’90s (that is the era I remember of the Troubles); and the pastor who resigned, came from and was trained in Toronto, and he thought the world of the former Northern Irish Protestant leader Ian Paisley – who was a man I thought thoroughly disqualified himself for the ministry by his violent language, as per I Timothy 3:1-7. So, the echoes of that period of Ontario history still reverberate.

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  50. The old farming family got quite huffy with our then pastor (I was barely an adolescent then, and so only remember the outline of events) because he wouldn’t endorse the Protestant Irish cause from the pulpit. Another brick in that wall – I mentioned at some point here a family who threw a fit and tried to wreck the church of my youth because the pastor declared his belief in the Sovereign Grace of God, and this family vehemently opposed the Doctrine of Election – same family.

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  52. My mom didn’t allow us to wear green on St Patrick’s Day. In junior high I owned two pairs of pants, one of them green, so one time I actually almost got out of the house wearing green on St Patrick’s Day–not on purpose, I just happened to be wearing those pants, green being my favorite color and all–but when I mentioned it aloud, Mom made me go change. I kicked myself for saying anything, since I wouldn’t have been doing it on purpose but for once in my life I could have gone to school on St Patrick’s Day without having a sore arm from all the students pinching me (some of them several times). A lot of the students who had forgotten to wear green would cover by saying, “I’m wearing green underwear” and then no one would pinch them anymore. But I got it all day long. My dad would just say “Pinch them back!” but obviously that wasn’t the way the thing worked.

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  53. Oooh, that sounds like it was painful in more than one way. My mom’s strategy was much sneakier — don’t offend the crowd but make your little statement anyway. 🙂

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  54. Thank you to all who wished us a happy anniversary yesterday. I’ve been behind on the threads, except I do keep up with the prayer thread even when I am behind.

    Liked by 1 person

  55. Cheryl – I can remember forgetting to wear green for St. Patrick’s Day, & getting pinched for it. (That was in Ohio, when I was in elementary school. I don’t know if they do – or did – that here in Connecticut.)

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  56. My mom once made all the table centerpieces for a St. Pat’s dinner/fundraiser at her church. She used orange and green and someone commented on the political significance. They thought my mom was promoting peace. She said she just thought orange and green looked nice together. 😀

    Liked by 2 people

  58. Happy (belated) anniversary Kizzie!

    I’m guessing that pinching is outlawed entirely at school now. Major no-no. But maybe a good thing.

    I still appreciate how my mom knew how to not rile up the “masses” (by making sure I wore green) but still making sure I made a subtle statement (with the bit of orange). She had a certain finesse. 🙂

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