52 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-21-17”

  2. Fourth Arrow is doing well with driving. We’ve been heading out every day this week to practice. Her first behind-the-wheel session with a driving instructor will be Sunday afternoon. She wanted to get in lots of practice before that, so we’re going that route.

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  4. Hi, Chas.

    I woke up at 2:52, got a drink of water, and went back to bed, but couldn’t get back to sleep. By 3:00 a.m. there was already a faint glimmer of light coming through the blinds of our north bedroom window. 4:00 a.m. especially so.

    I dozed off a little bit finally some time after that, but not for long. I will have to get more rest today, as I can see my brain is not up to speed. I read the Psalm of the Day just now that AJ posted, and I thought “on Edom I toss my sandal” said, “on Edom I toss my salad.”

    Have a pleasant day, everybody. 🙂

    Liked by 5 people

  5. Good morning from the wet and overcast South. We are under a tropical storm watch until 10 am. I am still up, dressed, and heading for Pcola.

    Today’s political analysis should be interesting. There was a photo of the CNN anchors that said it all.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. In a couple of hours we are heading to a local butterfly garden that is only open a few more days. Hopefully we won’t have to share the space with a lot of other people. We went a couple of years ago and I got some fairly good shots; this camera has a longer zoom and I have more experience getting action shots, so perhaps I’ll get some more good ones, and maybe of a different species or two. (I think they vary the species a bit week to week, and hopefully it’s at least a little different mix.)

    The last couple of days I have walked down the street to where a mulberry tree has ripe berries. (Unfortunately it is a white mulberry tree–a species considered a nuisance, and also one that doesn’t have pretty berries as I photograph the birds among them.) Day before yesterday I saw cardinals, cedar waxwings, orioles (male and female), and robins (several robins, but the pair in whose territory the tree stands stay busy reminding the others of such facts), and yesterday I saw the same species (except the cardinals), but also a male indigo bunting. Smaller birds show up as well. And in moving to get a different angle, I flushed a pair of rabbits.

    I love June!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Good morning. I have not been feeling very well in the tummy department. It may be from splitting the Key Lime pie over two days with Art. I got that for him for Father’s Day along with a dark chocolate bar with cranberry, orange, and honey mixed in (Private Selection at Kroger). Perhaps it was the combo. Maybe? Do you think? Considering I am lactose intolerant, at least it was not milk chocolate.

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  12. QoD: No. “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20 (NASB) Full context here.

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  13. Yes, geese — they were mean to the dogs in our park, too. Very territorial. But many people liked them and swept them away to safety when the coyotes took up residence in that park last summer.

    I went to bed early last night, felt really discouraged — from a perceived slight at work and then I accidentally left the gate ajar when I was talking to the neighbor last night when Cowboy ran out. Sheesh. Neighbor was able to corral him. And then the house …

    My cousin wants to go out this Saturday to see Wonder Woman and have lunch, which probably would do me good. And i’ll still have time to get to the house … There will ALWAYS be the house …

    I thought yesterday, technically, was the first day of summer

    Summer solstice 2017 in Northern Hemisphere was at 9:24 PM on
    Tuesday, June 20

    For those of us in the west, anyway, that was Pacific time, I think — so maybe the rest of you got bumped to today.

    Summer isn’t my favorite time of year (since I lost summer vacation privileges and had to go to work full time, anyhow). But here we are. I spent some time out watering last night, my neighbor swears by using Weed & Feed so I may try some of that though I also see it’s considered toxic and recently was banned in Canada. I don’t think Annie ventures onto the front yard anymore, she sticks to the driveway & front porch on her short forays to the front of the house in the mornings. Would love to get rid of the weeds so I could plant some grass seed.

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  14. I am jealous of the geese picture. A few Sundays ago I was riding my bicycle on the Rail Trail and saw seven full geese families on a lawn next to the trail. Of all days, I didn’t have my phone with me.

    Liked by 2 people

  15. Kim @ 7:40
    “…heading for Pcola…” I first read it as ‘Pensacola’ (My last Duty Station was Fort Rucker, Alabama in Dothan Alabama, The peanut capital of the World!

    Then I looked at “Pcola” again and wondered what strange drinks Southerners had…

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Fog horns from the harbor are sounding off this morning.

    That is a very synchronized photo today, as Cheryl put it.

    Can I just go back to bed now?

    Liked by 1 person

  20. “Summertime” makes me think of my grandma. She was the huggy affectionate one in my life who always made me feel like the most important person in the world. I looked forward to spending a week at her and grandpa’s house each summer. We would snuggle and rock every evening on their back patio in her purple rocking chair and sing, “Daisy, Daisy”, “Mairzy Dotes”, “Jamaica Farewell”, “On Top of Spaghetti”, “Down in the Valley”, and “Summertime”, among others. She’s been gone 20 years. I still miss her.

    Liked by 4 people

  25. They talk about closing the airport in Phoenix because of the temperature. I had forgotten. The temperature in Arabia was high when we were taking off in our B-29. That plane would roll forever, is seems, before we got airborne. Then we flew across the desert (seems like 50 feet) for several miles until we got over the Persian Gulf. Then we climbed to altitude. Usually about 18,000 feet.

    I don’t understand the physics of the problem, but remembered that it exists.

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  26. Kevin, the music of Porgy and Bess is beautiful, but it is technically an opera. Like most operas (all except the comic ones) it is a tragic story. We humans are strange that way, we often make the most beautiful music and dance for the saddest stories. It isn’t just Western art that does this, some of the best music and dance in Indian films are from tragic films. Perhaps it is a way of us expressing our sense that life is still beautiful, although it is filled with pain.

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  27. Interesting back-and-forth ongoing on a local FB coyote page between posters named “Summer Joy” (The coyote is a symbol of new life and giver of birth) and “Arrow Scout.” (they don’t have any symbolism but death … You must control their population).

    Deep philosophical differences.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. I stayed up until ten and got up at five. Nap is in my future. Husband and son were doing some work on the porch and wanted to see it through. It looks nice.

    Eleven year old just wiped out on his newly repaired bike. Husband had already left to get fifteen year old’s bike repaired. He used to do it all himself but his hands no longer cooperate. Eleven year old will need repairs but I told him to go ride a bike so he does not get scared.

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  31. I’ve been up and cleaning, cooking and generally fluffing all morning…12 neighborhood ladies are coming over tonight and it is stinkin’ hot here…88 degrees and it is just past noon…we have air conditioning…the ladies will like that! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  33. But he still wasn’t our richest president.
    I have heard that George Washington once owned half of Virginia.
    I don’t recall the source. But George was rich.

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  34. We got to the butterfly garden. They had more species out than in 2015, I think. For sure they had several species we didn’t see last year, plus many we did. Two or three were extremely hard to photograph well–impossible to get the shot I wanted. A couple of species wouldn’t open their wings, and others fluttered nonstop, even when perched. One very large, very colorful one never did let me get a decent shot. Like last time, a lot of them landed on my husband’s straw hat. I don’t think I got any “perfect” shots, but several dozen “very good” ones. The butterflies are from Africa and Asia, so not any I would see in the wild.

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  35. Phos @ 12:44. I know you aren’t a country music fan, but the best in country is about a man losing his woman. “Tears on My Pillow”, “Wild Side of Life”, “Poison Love”, etc.
    In country, the woman is usually at fault. In real life I have noticed that it’s the other way.
    That’s why “It Wasn’t God who made Honkey Tonk Angels” so popular.

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  36. I love a lot of the music in Porgy and Bess but don’t care for the story–which is often true of opera, as Roscuro noted! 🙂

    A successful day playing hockey–only one child hurt so far–and tomorrow it will be water play which always generates controversy but they love it.

    Marketing meeting soon and blog writing all afternoon. So far, not too hot in my closed up house.

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  37. Chas, you are right. Thinking about a lot of the country songs I’ve heard, they are full of tragedy. Country isn’t my first choice of genre to listen, but I wouldn’t say I’m not a fan. I have a great respect for the best musicians in the genre, as I do for most genres. Johnny Cash would be the first to come to mind, but musicians like Alison Krauss produce high quality music in the genre.

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  41. After Wolverton Mountain, you have a choice of top music of the 50’s. first one is Johnny, “”I Walk the Line”. Not at all about cheating.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. The last final exam, Integrated Physics and Chemistry, was completed and passed at 3:30PM EST. Summer has officially begun! 🙂

    Liked by 7 people

  43. Re the song, from Wikipedia:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Walk_the_Line

    ___________________________________

    The unique chord progression for the song was inspired by backwards playback of guitar runs on Cash’s tape recorder[5] while he was in the Air Force stationed in Germany. Later in a telephone interview, Cash stated, “I wrote the song backstage one night in 1956 in Gladewater, Texas. I was newly married at the time, and I suppose I was laying out my pledge of devotion.”[6] After the writing of the song Cash had a discussion with fellow performer Carl Perkins who encouraged him to adopt “I Walk the Line” as the song title. Cash originally intended the song as a slow ballad, but producer Sam Phillips preferred a faster arrangement,[7] which Cash grew to like as the uptempo recording met with success.

    Once while performing the song on his TV show, Cash told the audience, with a smile, “People ask me why I always hum whenever I sing this song. It’s to get my pitch.” The humming was necessary since the song required Cash to change keys several times while singing it.

    The song’s lyrics refer to marital fidelity, personal responsibility, and avoiding temptation and criminal behavior.[8]

    The song was originally recorded at Sun Studio on April 2, 1956, and was released on May 1. It spent six weeks at the top spot on the U.S. country Juke Box charts that summer, one week on the C&W Jockey charts and number two on the C&W Best Seller charts.[9] “I Walk the Line” crossed over and reached number 19 on the pop music charts.[10]

    It was performed with the help of Marshall Grant and Luther Perkins, two mechanics that his brother introduced him to following his discharge from the Air Force. Cash and his wife, Vivian, were living in Memphis, Tennessee, at the time. Cash became the front man for the group and precipitated the introduction of the group to Sam Phillips of Sun Records. In 1955, they began recording under the Sun label.

    The song was re-recorded four times during Cash’s career. In 1964 for the I Walk the Line album, again in 1969 for the At San Quentin album (a live performance), in 1970 for the I Walk the Line soundtrack, and finally in 1988 for the Classic Cash: Hall of Fame Series album. Additional live performances have been released since Cash’s death, along with a demo version recorded prior to the formal 1956 recording session that was released on Bootleg Vol. II: From Memphis to Hollywood (Columbia/Legacy) in 2011. …
    ________________________________

    Liked by 1 person

  46. If I ever need to run sideways and escape a motorcycle, I’m going to buy a Lexus.
    Otherwise, I’m sticking to my Merc.

    Speaking of country, while at dinner, I got Elton Britt’s “Crybaby Heart” in my head.

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  49. Jo, I don’t have much advice. I know, I’m from the generation who is supposed to be the most tech savvy, but I just figure it out as I go. My phone was bought, unlocked, from Amazon. It was the cheapest I could find for what I needed and is a Microsoft phone. I got one of those prepaid plans, with a SIM card, from the phone company that offered the best deal for what I needed. My phone can go on the internet when there is Wifi, but I couldn’t afford the additional cost of mobile internet service on top of my phoning and texting plan. I’m glad I have it daily, not just to talk to my mother and text my siblings, but the maps and bus schedules I’ve loaded onto it (I don’t have it connected to any navigation service) help me get around the city.

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  50. I’ve bought my last two Iphones used and refurbished from AMazon as well and have been perfectly happy. I’ve got a 5 which is working fine, but my greed examines a 6 from time to time. The nice thing about buying it used through Amazon is former owners often toss in extras like cases.

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  51. Sad thing about “I Walk the Line” to me is that he wrote it for his first wife, & they ended up divorcing. (But I think some people think he wrote it for June.)

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