58 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-3-17”

  1. Good morning! Just finishing a night shift. Catching up on days I did not have time to read the blog. I hope everyone has a productive day.

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  2. Pretty azalea?
    Did Mumsee spend an anniversary bulling weeds?
    She and Mike have been married a year longer than Chuck and Linda. They celebrate their 37th on the 12th.

    OH! Good morning everyone.

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  4. That is more of some type if lily.
    I slept in this morning.
    We are trying again today to get a good photo of me. I have been practicing in the mirror. That’s a little awkward. I have never spent too much time looking at myself.

    Liked by 4 people

  6. So, the nicest thing happened in Sunday School yesterday. There was a new woman who joined us. We share the same name. When she sat down I noticed that she had two white shiny pottery crosses around her neck. They were small with what looked like a flower in the center. As class ended and we prayed I asked for prayers for my friend L. Afterwards K spoke to me and said we had met before. She wants to introduce me to a friend of hers who has a commercial property downtown. She took one of the crosses from around her neck and asked me to give it to L for healing. She said she almost died 7 years ago and she believes in the power of prayer. She said to give the cross to L and tell her to pray twice a day for healing. K makes these crosses. How nice to give something so meaningful to a person she has never met and only prayed for once.

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  7. In other news, Mr. P and I watched the moving Loving last night. How strange it seems to me (a child of the deep South, post Civil Rights) that two people could not be legally married because one was Caucasian and the other was of African descent (although now that Miss I Have To Research Everything, has now read she may have been Native American).
    Oh, and for any of you who may watch the movie, I couldn’t understand some of the fake accents either. I had Mr. P stop the movie and asked him if I were going deaf or if the people were mumbling.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_(2016_film)

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  8. We had a lovely anniversary yesterday, and thank you for the good wishes and it is neat to see we are not alone in long term marriage! Husband got over six hundred miles closer to home and I watered some plants but did no weeding. And dealt with a couple of fractious fifteen year olds. And took the younger two swimming. And enjoyed the fellowship of believers and worshiping the Lord in a body of believers.

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  9. We recently celebrated our 45th anniversary. Very hard to believe that much time has passed.

    At first I thought Kim’s friend was suggesting the ceramic cross would heal someone. I am glad that was not the case. It is easy to turn prayer into a white magic type thing–especially when introducing something that seems to be a talisman. We need to be clear about it. Prayer is a fabulous gift from God.

    For some reason this refrain, which is used often in the bible, really struck me this weekend: “God is good, His love endures forever.” What a truth and promise that is!

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  10. Happy (belated) Anniversary, Mumsee!

    In response to Kevin B yesterday @ 11:53 pm: Peter, is the “killer hill” the one that you climb up about a million steps to get to a lookout over the river? There might have been some other attraction, I can’t remember. We were there in ’05, and I remember the million steps more than I remember whatever was at the top of them!

    You’re thinking of the light house on the North side, with it’s 240+ steps. (You figured out that you can drive up the very steep street and only have 70+ steps, right?) The “killer hill” is Lover’s Leap, on the South side, which is a bluff 250ft above the river. The road is a very steep 1/8 mile long.

    Click here to see what I mean. It’s the Google map version of the climb. Imagine running (most walk) up that hill after going 1½ miles, some of that running up a hill almost as steep.

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  11. Good morning! That was sweet of your new friend, Kim.

    I was up late last night and posted a comment on yesterday’s thread that I will try to copy and paste on this thread.

    I hear the garbage truck on our street confirming it is Monday. We have continued to have a lot of rain. Last night we heard a few booms and did not know if we were hearing early fireworks or thunder.

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  13. Copy and paste from last night:

    I have found it difficult to get to this blog lately. This evening Art and I watched the movie Unbroken. On other nights we watched the first two Hunger Games movies. And recently we watched We Are Marshall. They have all been enjoyable.

    Church with the interim pastor was good this morning. His wife is very nice. He is the one who was going to be overseeing our two churches through the merge and has already been a member of our church for a long time. I am thankful we are not having to adjust to a totally unknown person.

    I need to go back and read today’s posts. Today I worked on rewriting what I carried to my critique group. That is mostly why I did not get to the blog earlier.

    I expect most of you are asleep by now. I hope to be In a few minutes. At least early fireworks seem to be done with for this evening

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  14. Happy belated anniversary, mumsee & Mike. I slept later than I wanted, I have a 9 a.m. assignment this morning — a naturalization service for about 40 young people being done on board the WWII Iowa in our harbor. Keynote speaker will be Sen. Kamala Harris, the Dem’s new rock star.

    Should give us some nice patriotic optics for our 4th of July Web and print editions.

    But it is very overcast with the marine layer this morning.

    The cat is STARVING based on her incessant, loud cries and claws on my leg. Guess I’d better feed her.

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  15. When I said the films were enjoyable to watch, in the case of Unbroken, it was enjoyable in the sense of being well done. The horrible torture and evil in the heart of the commander of the prison camp was definitely not enjoyable to witness.

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  16. Kathaleena…at first I wasn’t sure or not about whether she thought the cross itself would bring healing. Now that you mention it, I still may not be sure. It is a thoughtful gift and I will give it to my friend tonight with the story. As I normally do, I have everyone I know praying for L. Her husband asks often for people to pray for her. I also ask people to pray for him. I introduced them so I have a special interest, but they were the storybook love at first sight. She was a Navy wife so I wouldn’t worry if she lost him, but if he loses her….. I can’t even allow myself to think that.

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  19. On the cross, if you think the best of her intentions, it is a symbol of the power in the blood Jesus shed on the cross. If it helps remind someone to stay focused on that divine power to heal rather than on the negative aspects of disease then it can be considered a blessing cross.

    It goes along with the movie, Unbroken, with the part about the three men drifting at sea on the raft. The one who focused on the negative potential for death was the one who died. He was hopeless. Hope kept the other two alive through that and through the horrors of prison camp.

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  21. Peter, yes, I thought maybe it was a lighthouse to which we climbed the million steps, and it was definitely on the north side of town. I don’t remember there being a street to bypass steps, but I think we were on a walking tour anyway. 240 steps sounds about right. Thanks!

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  23. I’ve read the book Unbroken and seen the movie, and can’t say I “enjoyed” either. But both are good. The book is deeper–which includes more pain, but also a greater sense of redemption.

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  24. Thanks, Kevin. Our son gifted Art with the book, but we have not read it yet. I know the book covers more on his Christian faith. I want to read it but have other books to read first.

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  27. Still morning here so…Good Morning! And Happy Anniversay Mumsee and Mike… ❤
    I have not seen the movie Unbroken but I have read the book…powerful and can be difficult to get through. I had to lay it down a few times and cry, but the witness of his faith and trust in our Lord was impacting. Most of Paul's running buddies read the book…many of these guys are atheists. Some of them noted how amazed they were at the deep faith of this man Louis and it was said with great respect…one never knows how one's life may impact others 🙂

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  28. I went out for a nice neighborhood walk this morning to see what I could find. And it was really a sweet walk. The ditch/creek was full of frogs, I watched a pair of butterflies spiraling upward in courtship, twice saw great blue herons fly overhead, watched at least two great spangled fritillaries (it’s a butterfly, and nowhere near big enough for such an ostentatious name) on milkweed, and saw quite a few birds.

    But two sightings were super special. One, a few days ago I photographed a medium-small bird that I initially thought might be a female yellow warbler (I wasn’t all that close to it and couldn’t judge the size well) and then thought was a female Baltimore oriole, but when I pulled up the photos later I saw it was a bird I more or less knew was in Indiana, but didn’t really expect to see: a female orchard oriole. Well, today I saw her mate. They aren’t a large or as bright as the Baltimore orioles, but really special sightings nonetheless. (The male was in the mulberry tree I’ve been scoping out for birds. I also saw robins, a female Baltimore oriole, a young song sparrow, a chickadee, and several cedar waxwings.)

    While I was trying to photograph one of the frogs, a rustle beneath me caught my attention, and I looked down and saw the back of a muskrat maybe two yards away. It wasn’t in a good position to photograph (all I could see was a blob of brown fur, since I could only see its back, and that was half hidden among grasses). But I watched to see if it would move out. After a couple of minutes I decided to take a chance and move quietly to the bridge/driveway to get a side view, and when I did, the muskrat stayed right where it was, drinking. I got several photos, and then it slipped quietly into the water, where I got one last photo before it went under. I don’t know if it somehow didn’t know I was there, or if it figured I wasn’t a serious threat and it was close enough to the water to flee in an instant, but it was amazing to be that close and have a really good view. (They don’t seem particularly skittish as long as they’re near water; I’ve been close to one before. But not that close.)

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  29. In talking with Karen today, she told me that Zamperini had been one of her husband’s patients. They have an autographed copy of the book. They have not seen the movie.

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  31. Hi y’all.
    I saw “Unbroken”. Can’t remember much, but thought it was a good flick… After reviewing the summary; it was kinda hard, but good.

    I watched two other movies recently that I can recommend:
    “Mr. Church”
    and
    “Hidden Figures”

    Saw previews for “Loving” but haven’t seen it pop up anywhere I can view it (cheap) yet.

    Liked by 3 people

  33. Which reminds me, several of you have sent me Linked In requests but I don’t have an account with them. My husband does and I think he made it through my computer because I have been getting those requests for years.

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  34. I’ve always heard that it’s best to have a new job in hand before quitting. Been hard to get motivated to find something else though. Since there are only three major cabinet shops in this area, only one of which I want to work for (and they have no benefits), it’s going to involve things I don’t want to deal with. Either a commute (bleah) a move (stress!), or going into another field and taking a major pay cut (depressing). As the only breadwinner in the family, I can’t afford to take a pay cut, and I’m already stressed out enough even without a move. And tired as I am all the time, I can’t imagine me commuting either.
    But my health is suffering, and the work environment is NOT going to change.
    I’m contemplating (as the only breadwinner in the family) taking up an offer to take a month off and recuperate. I’ll have $4,000 to tide me over…
    What do you think?
    Bad idea to quit without having something lined up?
    Or maybe I should just ask the boss if I can take a month sabbatical so I can get my capsulitis/metatarsalgia (foot inflamation) under control?

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  36. “hidden figures” was very good.

    “Unbroken” — book was better than the movie but the film wasn’t bad. Hard to encompass all of that in a 2-hour movie. The faith element was there, but not as powerfully as it was in the book.

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  38. Okay, so this is disgusting but I will do you a service and tell you anyway so you will be forewarned. Caution, this is ucky. If you have a weak stomach or otherwise don’t want to read disgusting, skip this comment and move on to more interesting things.

    As is my usual daily after dinner and a nap practice, I use my water pik as I am too lazy to floss. But, due to previous challenges with the device, I always turn it on prior to putting it in my mouth. Today was no exception. There was an odd noise and a sudden blast and body parts were scattered around my sink. Yuck, I said, what is going on? Upon closer inspection, I found the remains of an earwig jammed into the end of the pik. I don’t need to tell you how revolting that was. But it is important to floss so I pulled out another tip and continued. But then I got to thinking. That was not in the tip, it was in the machine itself. I cleaned the tip after removing the corpse with a straight pin. Then ran the thing for quite a while. No more earwigs or body parts. I have not seen many earwigs in the house this year and had recently told myself how nice it was to not have them running around anymore. Yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck. You have been forewarned, always check closely before using the water pik.

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  39. I really liked Hidden Figures.

    The flower is a day lily.

    I would not quit a job, before I had lined something else. This would be especially true if I were the sole breadwinner. It is always easier to get a job, if you already have one, than if you are not working at all. The older you are, the more difficult it gets, too, IMO. It sounds like a difficult place to be, make it, but that is how I see it. 😦

    Liked by 1 person

  40. Yuck, mumsee. Reminds me of the worm I almost ate in the pistachio the other day. After shelling it, I noticed something didn’t look right and was I glad I double checked. Yuck.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Well, Mumsee, after hearing about the splatters of parts, I know it can be worse. A major expressway is shut down in the Atlanta area because of a spill of chicken guts and parts all over the highway. It is incredibly yucky. I think the truck was from a rendering plant headed to a facility for making dog food. At least that was what some on Facebook were indicating in comments on the news story.

    Liked by 1 person

  43. Can you imagine being behind or near the truck at the time of the spill before they closed the road?

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  44. Oh, you guys!

    I agree, don’t quit.

    I was going to say the flower looked like a day lily. But since I killed the only one I ever had, I wasn’t all that sure.

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  46. Yesterday during check in at camp, one little girl and her mom were sent to me because her name was not on the list. Turns out she had somehow been cancelled!! Thanks to God that there was one spot that hadn’t filled and I was able to get her in and even into the same cabin as her little friend. I felt so horrible for her – she was in tears. I’m so thankful for her mom who was understanding and grateful that we could work it out. We love having sold out camps, but boy, it could have been tricky!

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  47. RKessler, 7:20 a.m. — I had a productive morning, so I guess that’s something I can be thankful for. Wish I hadn’t run out of steam in the afternoon, though. I don’t know how you function on so little sleep. (If I’m remembering a conversation right, which several had on this blog a few weeks ago regarding wake-up / go-to-bed times.) I awoke three times last night, and though I fell back to sleep fairly soon after each of those times, it really dragged me down by afternoon. I probably should have tried to get a little nap in there instead of trying, unsuccessfully, to slog through everything I felt I needed to do today.

    It’s almost 9:00 pm, and I haven’t given 6th Arrow the second part of her piano lesson yet. (I break her lessons into two parts — old assignment, played alone, then with me when there is a teacher duet part; and new assignment, when I introduce her new theory, technique, repertoire, sightreading & rhythm flashcards, and composition work.) In between the two parts of her lesson, I plan what will be new, reviewed, or put on the “polished” list to play periodically.

    Part 1 and planning time are done. 9:00 and time to get to Part 2. Onward.

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  49. Blessings on summer camp and music lessons!

    Citizenship story went well, but didn’t get off early (which is typical for us). Watered out front; Carol called, she flubbed on her phone payment again, the man from church who bought her the phone will be pretty disappointed. Oh well …

    Glad to be home with 1 day off, at least — but it sure feels like Friday! And Wednesday will be an ‘early’ day with having to get my car in for service.

    Liked by 1 person

  51. I told you that Chuck went to Spain to give a presentation at a meeting. This morning I got this e-mail:

    It was a good presentation. A few people told me that my English is excellent. I just smiled and said thank you.

    😆

    Chuck

    Liked by 3 people

  52. Morning, Chas. Your comment brought a smile to my face. 😉

    Jo, that sounds like a fun concert. Sousa music — ah, love it! I’m looking forward to a concert in the park on Thursday. It’s in my hometown. Third Arrow and I went last year and had the greatest time, so will do it again this year. The program will open with the Star Spangled Banner, and among several delightful classical numbers, by Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Wagner, Strauss Sr. and Sibelius (Finlandia — so moving, that one, containing the tune used for the hymn Be Still My Soul, which was my grandfather’s favorite hymn; he’d request I play it from time to time when I would be at his house to practice piano as a child), there will also be music by John Williams (March from Raiders of the Lost Ark) and a crowd favorite from last year, the Armed Forces Salute arranged by Robert Lowden.

    Not sure if there will be a new thread for today, or if I’ll get here the rest of the day, but if not, or if I don’t, Happy Independence Day to all who are celebrating! 🙂

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  53. Thanks for the music lesson blessing, DJ. 🙂 It went well, and ended about one minute before 10:00 pm. Meaning one minute before daughter’s bedtime. LOL. She did great, though. The lateness of the evening had no effect on her. She just throws herself into her playing at all times of the day and night. 🙂

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  55. Good Morning Everyone. I had a few minutes alone with L and gave her the cross. I told her I had dozens and dozens of people praying for her and that Sunday I asked for prayer for her, then the story of the woman giving me the cross to give to her. She started tearing up and started to thank me. NO! It isn’t from me. It is from someone else. I had nothing to do with it, except get it here to you. I loved that feeling…it wasn’t me, it wasn’t my idea…it’s a gift from a stranger.

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  57. Interesting tale about the Ragged Old Flag.
    Johnny and I grew up when all of America was patriotic.
    But I agreed with Kate Smith that the national anthem should be changed.

    Kate Smith was a popular singer in the 1940’s. “It’s high noon in New Your, and time for Kate Smith”. Kate wanted to change the national anthem to “God Bless America”. She always sang that.
    I agreed. “The Star Spangled Banner” is about a flag, not America. And it is unsingable for most people.
    Problem is< "God Bless America" mentions God and we can't have that.
    And it seems the blessings may be over.

    Liked by 1 person

  58. Gene Autry wrote and sang a song called “God Mush Have Loved America”. Gene went into the AF in WW II. Flew over “the Hump” in Burma.

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