62 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-6-17”

  2. 🙂

    Since I don’t get on here until my morning chores are done, & when I do get on the computer, I check some other things first (starting off with Bible reading), I don’t give myself a chance to be first.

    But my morning chores are finished extra early today, & I’ve read my Bible, & checked my email already, because I had to be up early for babysitting first shift. (That’ll be 6:30 to almost 4:00. Could be later, if she’s delayed getting out of work. Started waking up around 5:30.)

    This is the day I have to babysit Little Guy & puppysit Janie by myself for most of those hours (Hubby may make it home before the end, but this is one of his especially long days). Not gonna put this on the prayer thread, but please say a little prayer for me. Taking care of either one wouldn’t be such a problem, but the two together can be overwhelming. Janie is so rambunctious, & needs to be fed at certain times, has to be taken out every hour (but still will have accidents – thanking God she usually uses the puppy pads), & she can get carried away when she’s playing, & start chewing on the couch or something else she shouldn’t. And then there is Little Guy, who also needs to be fed & paid attention to.

    I guess that’s not all as difficult as I’ve made it out in my mind to be, but I am tired.

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  4. Good Morning Kizzie…just reading that made me want to go back to bed!! 😛
    Praying your day will be filled with joy and some relaxing moments…does little guy participate in the training of puppy? A boy and his dog…or so they say
    It is a beautiful day in this forest and we are praying the predicted rain tomorrow and the next day come to fruition…hot dry and windy is not a good combination out here…Breckinridge is in a scary situation right now as the entire town has been or is on alert for evacuation.

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  5. I recently wrote that our town only has two “chains” – McDonald’s & Subway. I had forgotten about the recent additions of a CVS & a Dollar General.

    One of the things some people complain about is that we have to go at least a half hour out of town to buy most of goods, especially clothes & electronics. Our one grocery store has very high prices since it kind of has us hostage. (Someone said someone else surveyed all the grocery stores in the state, & determined that our Big Y – part of a small regional chain – is the most expensive one in the state.)

    But our very small downtown area has a few “artsy fartsy” gift stores. They seem to come & go, because they can’t really do a great business in our area.

    One on of the local Facebook pages, someone asked what we would like to see in Stafford. There were suggestions like more sidewalks, certain changes in Hyde Park, attract new businesses, etc. One guy said this, & I laughed:

    “A warehouse for hoarders disguised as an “antiques and collectibles” shop.”

    😀

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  6. Good morning, NancyJill! Yes, Little Guy helps with Janie.

    He does adore her, but he likes to pick her up too much. Lucky for Janie, she’s soon going to get too big for him to do that.

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  7. Chuck and Linda are in Barcelona, Spain. I checked on them this morning (it’s 2:45 p.m. there now.) and all the Spanish names of places popped up on my phone. Except one. It stood out like Starbucks</b?
    Did I tell you that I went to Starbucks once. I had a hard time getting a regular coffee, and never went back.

    I really prefer McDonalds or Chick-fil-a. Just regular coffee.

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  8. I am thankful that right now Little Guy is sleeping on the couch & Janie is upstairs in her crate. (Nightingale took her out before leaving for work, so I don’t have to worry about her, but should let her out pretty soon.)

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  11. Starbucks coffee is acidic so I don’t drink that, but their cafe mocha and their chai are very good 🙂
    The beauty of living in our area is the smaller coffee shoppes…imported beans, roasting them on site, small intimate venues for gathering with friends over coffee and pastries…when I visit back east, finding a coffee shoppe is nearly impossible…why is that?

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  12. Have I mentioned that a few years ago, Walmart wanted to come to town? The Planning & Zoning Commission quickly made a regulation that would keep out any big box stores. Many residents have been complaining about that ever since.

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  14. Maybe we don’t have many of those intimate coffee shops here in the east because we are inundated with Dunkin Donuts places on practically every other street. (Oh, yeah, I forgot. We do have one of those, too.)

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  15. Not at all, Karen. it is exhausting to have one of them around. And a puppy is not a happening thing around here as that is way exhausting. Of course, I believe in crate training.

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  16. I have just finished reading a book called And Now the Fire It is about how terrorists destroy a nuclear power plant on the Hudson River and contaminate most of New England for thousands of years. They also get a simultaneous hit on downtown DC, but only for a few blocks, including the Capital and White House, and San Francisco.
    The book is not how they are prevented from doing it. They did it.
    Scary stuff because it’s plausible.
    There was no retaliation because no one knew who did it. Only that Muslims did it supplied with Saudi money.
    The author clearly doesn’t like the Saudi’s nor respect our security system for nuclear facilities.
    He has a point. Oil money is behind most of the trouble in the Middle East and nuclear security is expensive and nothing is likely to happen on my watch. Someday maybe, but not on my watch.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Chas, your son and daughter-in-law are in Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain. They don’t speak Spanish there – they can, but they prefer their own language, Catalan. Will they go to see the fantastical Sagrada Familia cathedral (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Sagrada_Familia_01.jpg)? Catalonia was the birthplace of two of Spain’s most famous musicians, Pablo (that’s the Spanish form of his Catalonian name, which was Pau) Casals and Alicia de Laroccha.

    This is a Catalonian carol, just to demonstrate the language – unlike Spanish, Catalan pronounces the ‘j’ the way English speakers do, among other differences:

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  19. I might be the only person on the planet who admits to loving Walmart.
    They now have an app called “Savings Catcher.” After every shopping trip, I scan my receipt and they automatically refund me the difference between their price and the cheapest price at any of the other stores in the area (they even tell you how many other stores they check, which in our case is 23).

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  22. Goodness you people have been busy. Everyone loves to hate Wal Mart. They came to our town but were made to build “out in the county” not in town. If I were daring (because of traffic) I could walk there–and I live “in the city limits”. There are ways around those types of things.
    I am in Pcola today.

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  23. Walmart was kept out of the nearest town to where my parents live. I don’t miss them, as I haven’t bought anything from Walmart in nearly a decade. It isn’t a real boycott, I just do not like the quality of the products they have to offer. I would rather buy a few more expensive items from other stores which last, then buy multiple cheap products which wear out or break quickly. I’m sure there is a Walmart somewhere in this city, but where I do not know.

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  25. In Quincy, IL (across the river and North ~20 miles) the WalMart opened on the edge of town outside the city limits. Then the city realized the lost sales tax revenue, so they annexed that area. Now all the new major stores are out there, killing the small mid-town mall.

    Kizzie- That is one thing I remember about our trip to Connecticut a few year ago- all the Dunkin’ Donuts stores. We now have one in Quincy, but I’ve not gone to it yet. I hope it doesn’t run the local, long term donut shop. Theirs are even better than Dunkin’s.

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  26. I can’t seem to comment on my phone, so this is a breathless IPad moment before life awakens.

    Having a lovely vacation, not doing much besides lounging and cooking. Lake is beautiful from my current distance–30 yards?–where I’m sitting in a lovely kitchen nook I’d love to have at home.

    This house came with a dock but also a small beach big enough to land the antique catamaran and for easy access for the children and several anxious mothers. (Raising my hand). The water is green and dense; Clear Lake no longer defines itself by the name. Kids love however, love it and we hose them down several times a day after their play. The non-swimmers, thankfully, wear life vests and we’re relaxing a little.

    I’ve been sitting out on deck reading, editing, thinking and occasionally praying, when I’m not directing, chatting and discussing food arrangements. I’ve sworn off the computer keyboard for the duration.

    We get regular dispatches from Africa, where CR is totally in her element, loving the whole experience. We continue to marvel that while she’s on the other side of the planet we can have routine conversations about a letter she expects from the DMV and how her phone is entertaining the local children!

    One of the other grandmothers joined us last night (and is currently sleeping in the girl’s room!), we’ve had a great aunt and uncle and a family with four more children comes tomorrow. All good.

    The kids and I watched Pinocchio last night. While I certainly knew the story and songs, I’m not sure I’d ever seen it before.

    The kids were rapt–silent (who the occasional whimper from a younger one) and they loved it. I’d say they were far more engaged in old Pinocchio than they’ve been in any Disney movie in a long time. Interesting.

    We’ll be back to the Moana hula dancing and themed music today, but last night they saw something rich and full of interest as well. Makes me want to give a little whistle like Jimminy Cricket!

    Breakfast time!

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  27. I’m with Chas, regular coffee is usually as fancy as I go. I’m overwhelmed when i walk into one of those places with the massive coffee menus. Huh?? I don’t know what any of it is. 🙂

    We have a place called Sacred Grounds in our town that’s popular.

    Karen, your town looks so charming. We also have a love-hate thing with chains — they’re seen as taking away from our waterfront town’s charm and historic, authentic vibe.

    On the other hand … As they’re redoing our outdoor entertainment/shopping area long the water over the next few years, some say a decent chain like a cheesecake factory might not be such a bad thing.

    And we’re a union town and and so “we” hate-hate-hate Walmart, I’ve heard more than a few rants about it at the dog park — but — shhh, don’t tell anyone — I’ve appreciated them when i’ve shopped there. Some of us the dying newspaper biz have resorted to saving money at places like that. And for people like Carol who has very limited money to spend, Walmart is a decent option.

    I’ve been cleaning up messes all night, one of the dogs apparently was not feeling so well. Hope it’s short-lived. I think maybe the fireworks also could have contributed. People next door said their older dog, Mona, was peeing in the house with all the noise. There were a few bangs when I went to bed going on midnight last night.

    I wrote a story yesterday on a former Assemblyman in our area who announced he is running for governor next year — he’s a moderate Republican (refused to endorse either Trump or Clinton) and I think he may have some promise. Our state has been dominated by the Democratic party for decades, it feels like we’re in a one-party state essentially.

    So far I like the new car repair shop, I had my oil changed yesterday & they gave it a once-over — and a really nice wash job — all for $65 or so. I don’t think I’ve ever had a car repair bill that low. 🙂 And they drove me to work; I managed to get one of our photographers to drive me back there in the afternoon to pick the car up. It all saved me a $20 “rental” charge (they also have rentals there, but the free shuttle was perfect as long as that’s available instead and I can get through the day without a car).

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  29. And speaking of hated businesses, a Chick Fil a was blocked in a nearby LA community where my cousin lives in the past few years (the council person in that area is gay which I suspect added to the official resistance as he pretty much led the fight). Anything but Chic Fil a. There was some other reason the city decided it wouldn’t be a good fit, of course, but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion as soon as Chic Fil a appeared on the scene with a request to build on that corner. Seemed like it would have been a very good spot, but apparently not. 🙂

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  31. Time to do more organizing and cleaning in the basement. Background music for the adventure will be what Roscuro posted. 🙂

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  33. I’m still managing to do a little bit each night after work — clear out a box or two, tear down a box or two. I have one remaining file drawer to clear out but from the looks of it, it’s filled with 3-ring binders holding Bible study notes so that should be pretty easy. Then I’ll have a completely free 4-drawer file cabinet available again (much of what was in there was paperwork from my mom’s estate, former dog documents – vaccines, etc. — and appliance, bills, and other info from this house & the house I rented before moving here). Some of it will be kept in permanent files, most of it went into the shredding bags.

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  34. See you tomorrow, Jo? Remember, I’m at the cave 12-8 tomorrow. If you’re going to be in the area earlier, let me know. My number is five seven three four seven zero double eight fifteen. There. Now all the world knows it. No biggie. I ignore calls/texts from strange numbers offering me money for odd jobs. Or callers that don’t leave a voicemail.

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  35. Dollar General is moving into smaller towns around here. Their prices and quality are as good or better than Walmart, which is losing some business to them.

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  36. Hubby is not a fan of Dunkin Donuts donuts. They’re fine, of course, but local “Mom & Pop” donut shops usually make better. He has a couple places in nearby towns he’ll go to if we want donuts.

    Peter mentioned tax revenue earlier. Due to not having many larger businesses in town, we have a pretty high mil rate. You would think having the CVS & Dollar General here would help, but our rates have not been lowered.

    And speaking of Dollar General (which, if you don’t already know, is not a dollar store). . .They bought a property known as “the old Maple Grove”. It was a beautiful old house that had first been a private home (mansion), & then had been a few different businesses over the years, including an inn at one time, & a fancy French restaurant for several years. The owner didn’t have the money to restore the building as it needed (it had fallen into pretty bad disrepair, mostly inside), so he sold it to Dollar General, who tore it down & put up one of their usual buildings.

    There was a big push in town to “Save the Maple Grove”. The owner was vilified for not restoring the building himself nor selling it to someone who would (but no one actually offered to do that). People forgot that we are not a socialist or communist country, & insisted that the town government “do something”. Many people declared they would never shop in Dollar General.

    Well, it is sad that such a lovely old building was torn down & replaced by something generic-business-like, but the Dollar General is indeed doing a good business.

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  37. Peter – Did you see the article I shared the other day, about things Mark Twain didn’t actually say?

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  38. Roscuro, I don’t (usually) buy apparel at Walmart – maybe socks and a sweatshirt. But in the health-and-beauty and grocery departments, they sell almost all of the name brands cheaper than elsewhere as well as their own brands that are even cheaper and just as good in many cases.
    Also, have you noticed that some stores are Walmart and others are Wal Mart (the later are older, I believe).

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  40. Re Starbucks: I went a couple of times in Chicago, didn’t like their hot chocolate (I’m not a coffee drinker) and thereafter avoided them. But when we were courting, we spent a lot of time in public places, including Barnes and Noble, and after a couple of hours browsing books, we’d go to the in-store Starbucks and I would get a chocolate-banana smoothie. They also have a new midnight-mint cold drink that is very good, and I sometimes drink their (hot) caramel mocha.

    Thing with Starbucks, if you know how to play the deals (my husband does), you can get their drinks a lot cheaper (most often we only pay for one), and we go there for a date. They have nice comfy chairs, including an outside area at ours, and we go and sit and talk for an hour and sip our drinks. Expensive drinks (if you pay full-price), but if you buy one drink and get the other free, it’s a cheap date.

    Some of their offers we have used within the last year: free item for your birthday, reload $10 on your card and get $20, buy three drinks and get one free, get 40 extra stars if you get this drink, and their usual free drink with 125 stars. The $20-for-$10 deal we’ve each done twice, so right off the bat everything is half price. And we will go in on a free-40-points day, get a free drink for him and a drink with 40 extra points for me, and sit and talk for an hour for five bucks. We almost never buy both drinks; usually one is free. Pretty much the only time we buy both drinks is when they have a “buy three, get one free” deal, and then we go twice and pay for three out of four of the drinks, but we also get stars for the ones we buy and there’s always the $20 reload for only $10. On average it’s better than buy one, get one free. Now, if we went daily or weekly, we might find it hard to keep the deals going that well, but going less frequently we’ve played the system well for some nice cheap dates.

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  41. Linda, I use a ‘natural’ product for my hair, as I can’t endure the scents of most brand name products. I just checked Walmart’s price out of curiosity, it’s the same as the grocery where my parents shop. It is somewhat more expensive at the grocery where I have to shop, but everything is slightly more expensive there. It is the only fully stocked grocery store for a two to three kilometre radius and the owners know it. I have remembered that I did once come across a Walmart in this city, but it is a very long bus ride from where I am.

    This was a really nice read: https://myonlycomfort.com/2017/07/05/the-humility-of-caleb/comment-page-1/#comment-1614

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  43. Our new Wal-Mart is maybe two miles away, and the other two in opposite directions are probably six miles away (one is very close to my childhood home). I do buy a few casual clothes to wear from there. My last purchase was a pair of jeggings. The groceries are pretty good, although that is where I got the rotten watermelon.

    We have Starbucks within a mile and another within two miles and probably more I do not know about because of our proximity to Emory and other universities. I have no idea how many cute coffee shops are around. We mostly do Starbucks once while on vacation. I know that our son goes to coffee shops to study, and those are typically not Starbucks. Common Grounds is right by the Baylor campus. Also, there are some very nice coffee shops in Chattanooga.

    Yesterday I spent over 600.00 for work on the car. Today I had the A/C maintenance which meant a new special filter for 85.00 and I had plumbing work done for over 250.00. It truly is Christmas in July! I already spent our Christmas money about 6 months early.

    Our library has a new computer system, and it now tells you on the receipt how much money you saved by adding up the cost of the materials checked out. It can’t really be accurate though because I do not think it ever uses a reduced price based on wear and tear of the items.

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  45. Re Starbucks, in Nashville, when we were courting, we realized that there were three Starbucks or sort-of Starbucks within a block or two. The mall had one in the Barnes and Noble (it wasn’t really a Starbucks, they told us, but they served Starbucks drinks and food) and another stand-alone Starbucks, and as I recall there was also one on the other side of the street from the mall, presumably for the convenience of those driving on the other side of the street or those who didn’t want to go into a mall.

    Chas, my husband always says that about amazon, too, that it will get rid of the malls. I think it’s partly amazon, partly Wal-Mart . . . and partly that teenagers, who used to hang out at malls more than any of the rest of us, are now spending their time in the virtual world. And some malls have banned teenagers from coming in without an adult.

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  47. We arrived home a little while ago. 🙂

    I see some of you sent me email pics. I’ll get to them…. eventually….. 🙂

    First I spent some time with the kitties. 🙂

    And then I have to unpack. 😦

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  48. Starbucks?

    Over-priced, and not very tasty coffee. I don’t go there at all.

    And speaking of Starbucks…..

    Some Muslims are boycotting them. See the News thread for more.

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  51. Roscuro, well done, 8 out of 10 correct. I’ll have to admit to guessing on a few of them, and I’ve lived in this country my entire life!

    I’m afraid if I had to take a Canada citizenship test, I might be lucky if I only got 8 of 10 wrong! 😛

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  52. Watching the Alicia de Laroccha video reminded me of a story I heard about her one time. She’s quite short, but very strong. When she sat down to give a performance once, she reportedly, upon finding the bench to be too far from the piano, promptly grabbed the front of the grand and pulled it toward her to the right spot for playing, rather than moving the bench toward the piano! LOL!

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  53. By the way, how is her first name pronounced? I had always thought the way it looks: a-LEE-sha. But I’ve, on more than one occasion, also heard it pronounced a-LEE-thee-a.

    (Thee not sounding like “thee” and “thou” but like the “th” in “throat.” [Unvoiced.])

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  54. AJ – A friend of mine pointed out that Muslims in America tend to be more or less Americanized, & more liberal (relatively speaking) than those in Muslim-majority countries, & that many American Muslims support gay rights. I don’t know what percentage, though. That kind of thing would be interesting to find out.

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  55. Well, I survived the day with the boy & the puppy with only a brief time of feeling overwhelmed. Janie ended up spending the last couple or so hours in her crate, for my sanity’s sake. 🙂 Little Guy was fine most of the time. Now I am ready for a good night’s sleep. (Let’s hope that happens.)

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  58. 6 Arrows- In Madrid and other parts of Spain, the ‘ci’ sound is like the unvoiced ‘th long e’. Also, the ‘z’ gets that sound but never the ‘s’. It’s because in old Spanish, the c before e or i, and the z were spelled as the ‘ç’ and pronounced with ah high pitched, almost whistling sound.

    And that’s your Spanish phonetic lesson for today.

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  59. Thank you, Peter! I wondered whether the unvoiced /th/ pronunciation of the ci part of her name was a regional variant. I don’t know much about language in other cultures, having traveled little and only studied one foreign language very briefly (for one quarter in college) — Mexican Spanish, I think it was, rather than European Spanish (is that what you would call it?), as I recall learning how to say la Ciudad de Mexico. And learned what that means — though I don’t know if I’ve got the capitalization right on that.

    Oh, now I’m remembering I learned small amounts of other languages, too, like French and German, as part of my college voice lessons. Though I only learned how to pronounce the lyrics, and didn’t really look at the English translation to determine the meanings of most of the words I was singing. I suppose that doesn’t really count as learning a language, when you only learn how to pronounce, but don’t know what you’re saying! (And sometimes even learning to pronounce is difficult, too. French — forget it! And I have.) 🙂

    Anyway, I find it interesting that ce and ci are sometimes pronounced /s/ and other times /ch/. Take the instrument the cello, with its /ch/ sound, and contrast it with “cellophane,” which begins with the /s/ sound.

    On an amusing side note, there was a restaurant in my area that started with the letters “Ci,” and everybody pronounced the beginning as /S/, but an acquaintance of mine in a vocal music course we took as music teachers said one time, “[That restaurant] should be pronounced [/Chee/…], not [/See/…]!” And I had always thought the same thing! Didn’t know there was anyone else thinking the same way. 🙂

    I suppose it was because of the Latin songs we sang in college choir, where c before e or i is pronounced /ch/.

    So interesting, the language variants and traditions there are all over. Thanks for the phonetic Spanish lesson. 🙂

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  60. I believe the word cello has the ch sound. because of the Italian influence in music.

    As for Latin words, classical Latin has c sounding like k and w sounds like v. Most choral pieces come from late Latin.

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  61. Yes, the Italian influence! I forgot about that. And that is why that (Italian) restaurant I talked about should have /ch/ for its first syllable sound.

    That’s interesting that classical Latin used /k/ for its c sound. Which then makes me think of the difference in pronunciation between the Boston Celtics (SEL-tics) and Celtic (KEL-tic) music.

    And there’s Celtic (/K/) sea salt, too.

    One of the last names in the extended family has a w in the middle than sounds like v. And then of course there’s the old public library building in my hometown which says pvblic library on the outside of it.

    This really could go on and on, couldn’t it? 😉

    . . .

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