60 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-12-17”

  3. Yup! Of course, that is because I am babysitting first shift today. (7 – 3 for Nightingale, 6:30 – around 4 for me & Chickadee. Well, the 6:30 part is for me, I let Chickadee sleep in.)

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  5. Yesterday, Nightingale took Little Guy to buy a “cup” & compression shorts for football. Standing in the aisle at the store, Little Guy says, very loudly (referring to his young age, of course), “I definitely need extra small!” Nightingale said she & the young male employee in the aisle started cracking up, as did I when I heard about it. 😀

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  6. Good morning, all. We have sunshine for the moment.

    Miss Bosley loves our son. In the evening while he slept, I heard her scratching at his door to get in to him. And Art told me that when son went out to the car to get His backpack that Bosley stood and waited at the door like she does when I go outside.

    Art also told me that my brother played with Bosley the whole time while we were waiting for Wesley to get home. And this is brother who would not visit for about two years because we had an indoor cat.

    I am letting my hair grow out for Locks of Love donation again. I discovered the claw clips for doing something like a French twist. It’s such a cool hairstyle for the summer. I am liking the feel much better than my usual ponytail for long hair in the summer.

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  7. Kizzie, will Little Guy be doing Scouting? Our son learned so much from that. It was a good place for knowing who the children and their parents are. It does take a lot of time, but it was worth it for us.

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  8. That is the Empire Sandy, home port, Toronto, originally built as a deep sea tugboat for the British navy in WWII and now converted to a schooner. The early birds who got down to the harbour quickly enough Canada Day morning were able to go on a cruise on her. She fired her gun as she passed by the docked vessels, just with powder of course.

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  10. Good Morning! We have a cloudy start to the day and this week we have been blessed with daily rain showers!
    The photo of the sail boat projects such beauty and calm…I have never been on a sail boat…perhaps that shall be on my bucket list!

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  11. Heat wave! Though nothing like the 120° California and Arizona had recently, it is still miserable to be out when it’s 95° and humidity over 60%. This time of year we call our state “Misery”.

    Liked by 3 people

  12. I’ve now finished 7 hours of printing from microfilm over the last two days. I was exhausted Monday night when I got home!

    1197 pages! Yikes, over $150 in printing charges. I kept telling myself, “this is cheaper than going to Yale to read,” but swallowed hard when I returned to my car to a $35 parking ticket. I had put the money in the wrong meter while talking to my son.

    (Who said to me at dinner, “I told you that was the wrong meter.” I never heard him.)

    The microfilm is due back at Yale on Monday 7/17 which explains the rush–otherwise I’d be sitting at the library taking notes all week and I haven’t time for that.

    Back to the desk today–I have lots of catching up.

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  13. CR in Africa is going well; she’s on safari now and has seen and shown us photos of baboon, elephants, one sleeping lion, hippopotamuses, marabou birds and so forth. Some of the stories have been graphically described physical issues–for others!

    I decided not to drive myself down and will fly. At 55 cents a mile; it’s more than $400 for me to drive, plus at least 16 hours. A $247 round trip airline ticket is easier, faster and guarantees I won’t be too exhausted to help her move, run errands and get ready for the next adventure, while being able to drive 90 minutes directly to work when I return and then function.

    That’s next week. Lots going on this week, too. 🙂

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  15. One of my Christian friends on Facebook (& Hubby’s real life friend) frustrates me. He is the kind of arch conservative who believes (& shares) anything that shows liberals or Muslims or Hillary Clinton (during the election) in the worst light possible. He frequently shares things that are not true or “fake news”, often bearing false witness in the process.

    This morning, he shared a video of a protest in Chicago, with text claiming it was a large crowd of Muslims shouting “Death to America!” Turns out it was from three years ago, showing a protest against bombings in Gaza, & that they were not shouting “Death to America”. I shared a Snopes article about it, which brought out one of his friends to insist that Snopes is not to be trusted.

    Okay, I understand that Snopes often has a liberal bent, but it gives sources that can be checked out. The story the video claims does not show up on any reputable sites, & Snopes listed sources for the original stories.

    So. . .to Hubby’s Friend, pointing out that the piece was false is akin to being politically correct, & wanting Muslims to change our Constitution & kill us. 😦

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  16. Oh, & he also laments “What is wrong with American pride these days?” So, hating Muslims so much that you’re willing to share false stories about them is an American value?

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  17. We are living in a strange and twisted time so it seems Kizzie….I see things in the newsprint (I no longer watch news on TV) that makes me go “huh?” I see no equilibrium when it comes to views and opinions…no reasonable discourse amongst us any longer. It seems to me everyone wants to be “right” and if one is not persuaded to agree with the other, one is reduced to calling names…kind of like in jr high school…what have we become ?

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  18. Good morning. I sat down last night and read a weeks worth of this blog. My life has been so crazy. We are shorthanded at work, trying to help my neighbors with their son (who passed yesterday), 4 boxes of cherries, the garden, the critters, etc. I am so thankful my son and husband are so easy going.

    I told my husband that I did not know if I scarred our son, or let him see what life and death are really about. He has now been in the room with a dead person, seen very strong people cry, and watch the mortuary take away someone that he knew. We lay in bed last night talking about how sad the whole thing is. I felt he had a pretty good understanding and perspective for a 5 year old.

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  19. Janice – Nightingale did mention Boy Scouts a while back. I’ll have to ask her about that. But with the various sports he’s involved in, they may not have time for Scouts.

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  20. Kizzie, I recently had a conversation with my mother, started by discussing my global health class as I was observing to her that some of the aid programs rang very hollow (not all by any means). We talked about I Corinthians 13, where it says, “though I give all my possessions to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it is all for nothing.” A person may do all the good works in the world, but if they do not truly love the people they serve, it is worthless; and that is true not only of secular aid agencies, but even more so of Christians, for whom the chapter was written. Further down in the same chapter, it observes, “Love… thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” If we support missions to other countries and talk about the lost needing the gospel, and yet gloat over negative news regarding those of opposite political viewpoints and other religions, then all that missions support and evangelistic talk is worthless, because it does not come out of love.

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  23. That jo gets around.
    Have you noticed that t Jo gets around?

    Mumsee, some places thrive on parking meters. And some, it’s easy to put money in the wrong one.
    There is a parking garage in Myrtle Beach where the spaces are on meter. The meter is at the entrance. You have to remember which level and number of the space you parked in.
    I think it’s still like that. I only used it once long ago.

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  26. Peter, 90 degrees and 60% humidity is typical summer in this part of the country.
    When Kim or Janice saw your post, they likely laughed.

    Have you ever noticed that lots of old guys seem unkempt. You think they are careless about grooming.
    Not so. It’s likely they didn’t see.
    I comb my hair always. Problem is: I can’t see it. I look in the mirror and I see through my distance lenses. I tip my head up the near lenses and all I see is my chin. I never really know if my hair is combed. But I think it is.

    Getting old ain’t for sissies.

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  27. Husband knows he leaves places when he shaves. When going somewhere that it matters, he asks if he got it all. But since I don’t generally notice those things…..

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  29. Hubby listened to the video, & commented that it sounded like they were chanting something about Palestine, but he did not hear anything about America.

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  30. Schooner! That’s in my photo theme realm. 🙂

    Woke up to dog poo in the living room (in several spots). I’ve concluded (since this is the 2nd time this has happened in the past week) that it’s caused by Tess raiding the cat’s food at night when i get forgetful and leave it within her reach. I forgot to take it up last night after I fed Annie and then went out to water. The dishes were swiped clean when I returned so I knew Tess had gotten up on her hind legs and manged to get to them on the butcher block table. I’m pretty good about re-sealing them in baggies and putting them back into the refrigerator when Annie is finished but sometimes just forget.

    Anyway, lots of cleanup today from wood floor 😦 Ugh. It may leave some stains.

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  31. These are strange times, Kizzie, we must always beware of being artificially “pulled” to the extreme just in reaction to the “other side” being extreme. As Christians, we need to be able to just step away from the anger and political turmoil that’s now engulfed our culture. I no longer am listening to cable news (for the most part) and even on my 30minute commute to work now I listen only to Christian stations — some of that isn’t that great, frankly, but it’s better than the talk radio and cable news yelling matches. It’s made a difference in my own peace of mind and ability to stay out of the chaos that’s taken over our present-day political atmosphere.

    And for now, I’m OK with not being up on every national political news that happens. Better than OK.

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  32. I’m with you, Donna. People who post reactionary posts on facebook are unfollowed. I have too many other important things to use my energy and occupy my thoughts. I could easily be drawn into it, but choose otherwise.

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  33. I forgot to mention that he also accused me of being politically correct, which reminds me that I think there is a conservative version of political correctness. In that version, if you don’t dislike certain groups or liberals as much as they do, then you must be a liberal.

    Kathaleena – Hubby’s Friend is younger than us, but not what most would consider particularly young – he is in his 40s.

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  34. That is the U.S. Brig Niagara, a replica of the square-rigged relief flagship of Commodore Perry, whose squadron of nine ships defeated a British squadron of six ships in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. She is a teaching vessel.

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  35. We went aboard her, and even got to go below decks into the hold. You can’t walk standing straight down there, for all the heavy crossbeams that make up the ceiling, but they can berth the entire crew, numbering some 45 people, down there.

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  36. Tall ships festivals come to our port every few years and draw huge crowds of people. The vessels offer very tiny quarters (I’ve toured a couple as well) but the crews are mostly very young & they manage. Many of them sit or stand perched high on the mast cross beams as the ships sail into the channel during the opening parade.

    We have a couple home-port tall ships, they’re the “official” tall ships for the city of LA., and they provide sail trips for inner city kids.

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  37. Wonderful new picture on the header!

    I was just putting clean sheets on son’s bed when Miss Bosley would not move out from under the fitted sheet. So we now have a very lumpy bed in the house. A lumpy bed that purrs!

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  38. The lump has righted itself and is now purring in my arms.

    Last night Art and I watched a documemtary, Song of Lenore, about what all Pakistani musicians went through when Taliban came in and later with Shariah law. At some point a your of jazz musicians from abroad toured which influenced the older men who revived their band by playing in soundproof rooms. They got really good and made a video that went viral. They were invited to play at Lincoln Center by Wynton Marsalis. They played Take Five using the sitar and other Pakistani instruments. It was a wonderful film (partly using subtitles). I think most who appreviate music would like to see this for its inspiration, and people who like history would enjoy it, too. I told Art that this was our first film from Pakistan as we continue our world tour through film. I did not get it from the library with that in mind. I got it because of Art’s heart for music.

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  39. DJ, there were plenty of young people among the crew, but they said the oldest crew member is 75, and he climbs the rigging with the best of them. Theoretically, I would love to be part of a tall ship crew; practically, my inborn sense that heights are a danger to be avoided at all costs would kick in about halfway up the rigging and I would probably need to be blindfolded and then carried back down on someone’s back. We (my cousin’s family and I) were discussing that when we were touring the ships and I observed that it must have been a terrible ordeal for those who were press ganged into service by the British navy from off the streets. Many of them would have been similarly paralyzed by heights, and then there would be the vertigo of sea sickness – another thing which I’m very prone to experiencing whether during air or water transport.

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  40. Oh, DJ, you had no idea how I needed to hear about your pet’s poo on the living room today. I have lately been making a big effort to keep our kitchen table cleared except for a fruit basket. Miss Bosley has a high chair, a leather architectural drafting chair that puts her almost even with the table height. I have tried to tain her to stay in her chair which she does mostly. Sometimes she is too tempted and does get on the table. Earlier today I discovered she had been on the table because she had regurgitated a little pile of her dry cat food on the table. I know that is too gross, and Jo will never want to visit me hearing that. I did a thorough job cleaning the table. I must NEVER let my brother know about it! Anyways, DJ, you made me feel a bit better as the old cliche , misery loves company, expresses.

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  41. That film name should be Song of Lehore. As you can tell, not only Miss Bosley is giving me challenges today, but my phone is exhibiting especially bad behavior.

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  42. Janice 🙂 (6:35).

    Roscuro, I recall a couple really older guys on the ships, too, they were limber and knowledgeable. The rigging is intriguing, I have no idea how they’d learn and remember to keep that all straight.

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  43. Unfortunately, I’m prone to sea sickness so tend to avoid going out on any kind of boat anymore. They’re taking media reservations now to ride in on one of the Navy vessels (from San Diego to LA) for the LA Fleet Week coming up on Labor Day.

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  44. Janice, Pakistani musicians use many of the same instruments as musicians from India and have many of the same classical techniques, since, in the eras when their classical music was developed, the two countries were one. As a result, there are a lot of Pakistani, and Afghani, musicians who end up in India and many of them write popular music there – some of the most popular Bollywood songs are written in Urdu dialect rather than Hindi and the popular rhythms of the dances are Punjabi in origin, which is in Pakistan. These musicians are for the most part, Muslims, and they are frequently at odds on social media with the conservative Islamic clerics who say music is unlawful. Reading a discussion under a posting of one of their songs on YouTube can be an interesting exercise on the internal conflict that happens when one’s religion conflicts with one’s sense of beauty. I get a sense of what it must have felt like when Puritans or Calvinists forbid the use of instruments in church – the great German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, was for a while employed by a prince who was a Calvinist, and during that time, he did not compose any church music – though he was one of the West’s greatest composers of sacred music – just secular music. Why does humanity think it is more godly or spiritual to deny oneself the innocent pleasure of listening to beautiful music?

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  47. Jo, my mother loves Jan Karon’s books. When she took care of the wife of the couple who stayed with my parents, my mother started reading the series to her, which the woman really enjoyed.

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  48. I went through a Jan Karon phase some years ago. 🙂

    Trying to decide if I can use a long FB thread in our town today to build into a larger feature story — has to do with a very prominent hilltop house overlooking the ocean, a Craftsman home built in 1908. Because of its location on a main street, everyone’s familiar with it.

    It fell into disrepair over the years and then recently was purchased and re-done as a “flip” (open house is this weekend, price is just under $1 million). While some say it’s a huge improvement over its former dilapidated state, others — the purists in town — are horrified that it has been stuccoed over and many of the Craftsman elements are gone.

    Inside it’s nice, but really not a lot different from any other contemporary house.

    Story would either take off in the preserving historic homes direction — there’s a lot of passion for that in our community and there are some ongoing examples of it being done — or/and how the HGTV programs have made us all “experts” on house makeovers.

    Might not be enough there, but that FB thread had nearly 200 comments on it so it’s something that does generate some common interest I think. I just need to pin the idea down a little bit more. …

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  51. Piano student who has entered a competition that is now only eight days away had a frustrating practice week with her piece — she was pretty close to tears tonight at her lesson. Many things fell apart, things that hadn’t happened before. She told me she struggled every day this week on it, a new problem each day. She had started working on the piece last year, intending it for performance in the spring, which she did, and then set it aside when the state contest was over in early May. But when she heard about this new competition slated for next week, she wanted to resurrect the piece.

    I shouldn’t have let her. She’s past her peak on it, and is trying too hard to get it back to what it was when she qualified for state. I think she’s got performance fatigue, and I should have thought of that when I asked her if she wanted to be in this new competition, or at the very least, steered her in a different direction when selecting her repertoire for next week’s competition.

    I feel horrible, and like crying myself. It’s not her fault things are going wrong.

    She will be out of state Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and won’t have access to a piano. That might be the best thing for her. The piece needs a rest. I don’t know that that will be long enough, though.

    Can I just say that I feel hideously incompetent right now? And like I’ve let her down.

    Still don’t have my letter of recommendation written for her, either. Maybe there’s something in this experience tonight God knew I needed before writing it. Just wish I knew what that was. 😦

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  52. I heard the most gorgeous piece last night on public radio, one I don’t recall ever having heard. It is the Largo from Chopin’s cello sonata, and it just about took my breath away. Brought tears and a whispered, “wow” from me at its conclusion. I hope it blesses you similarly.

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  53. We had a synchronized orchestral accompaniment with the fireworks display. The crowd was enormous, and since there is a large and very mixed immigrant population in the community, there seemed to be people from every national/ethnic origin. I even saw some Syrians among the crowd (the city hosts a large number of Syrian refugees). I was sitting under a tree on the hillside, and the bandstand wasn’t visible from where I was, but there were speakers. When I got to the harbour front where the display was going to be, I couldn’t hear anything from the speakers, though I knew a pop band was playing at the time, so I figured I wouldn’t hear the accompaniment, but when the orchestra came on stage, everything was suddenly audible. I don’t know whether they turned up the speakers or the orchestra sound just carried better. It was a lovely experience, but I did wonder afterwards if the fireworks smoke set off my asthma. I’m glad I got to do it once.

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  55. We had our pops orchestra set up on the beach for several years to play music with the fireworks over the water. They quit doing it because of the expense and logistics. Wish they’d start it up again, the conductor told me he was hoping they could but so far it hasn’t happened.

    I think a story on people restoring historic homes would be fun for me to do.

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