63 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-17-17”

  2. The $ above was supposed to be a @.
    but you knew that.
    No, it really supposed to be a &.
    I need go get back into bed before I cause some trouble.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Good Morning Everyone. I have been up since 5 trying to make myself take this online course. It is dry and boring, therefore while I read my mind wanders off. Florida is just enough different from Alabama that I can’t fake this. I really need to pay attention. Ugh.
    It will be a long day today. The person who owns the team I am responsible for will be here this afternoon. I have 3 or so agents to come hear what she has to say and hopefully can put them to work with me so that I can further train them and get them into production, thus earning some money for me. Which would be a very good thing.
    I am off to get dressed and face the rest of the day.
    Ya’ll be good, ya hear!

    Liked by 4 people

  7. Good morning! We had a big storm in the night, probably around 3 a.m. Then at 3:30 the phone alarm went off because it was never changed from last week when Wesley had to leave around 4 a.m. to get to the Atlanta airport for his early flight. So, haha to the phone alarm that did not get to rudely awaken us because the storm did first.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Peter, at second look, the leaves give some perspective. But Initially, you don’t know if you’re high up looking down on a great torrent, or just a picture of a creek.
    I think the latter, but I still wouldn’t want to fall into that.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. My kid is back on US soil as of half an hour ago. Whew! Now to get her back across the country home.

    As I prayed for all this morning, I came up with a marketing scheme for 6 Arrows. What do you think?

    6 Arrows Music?

    Use that as an email address, then point out your teaching philosophy is based on 6 arrows:
    Technique
    Training
    Teaching
    Theory
    Musicality
    Joy

    Pianist with X years performing and teaching welcomes new students.Contact 6arrows@———–.com to set up an introductory conversation. My hope is that all students will share my joy in piano–whether personally or in performance.

    Go ahead and play.

    Liked by 8 people

  12. I like the header photo a lot! My husband loves the ocean and ponds, and I like them if they have life (birds swimming or flying, pond lilies), but what I love is noisy, rapidly moving water: waterfalls and creeks.

    Liked by 2 people

  13. All I know is it’s Monday. Again.

    And it’s gardener day (also his pay day so I need to leave a check). I have to feed the dogs early as I need to leave them locked in the house when I leave. My neighbor is good enough to let them out after the gardener is finished. But I don’t want Cowboy getting out again and whenever that gate is being opened by workmen, out he sneaks.

    Came across a 1911 passenger R/R schedule (Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway)in my ancestor’s old trunk this weekend. “California: Winter’s Summer Garden” is the advertisement inside that also speaks of “the delights of a visit to the State beautiful.” It was persuasive enough for some of my people to leave the frozen Midwest eventually.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. The pamphlet includes a sketch of a couple riding in a ? Model T through what looks like Beverly Hills to me. 🙂

    Lush trees, mountains in the background. The man driving is wearing a jaunty cap and sunglasses. The woman (sitting in the back? He must be her chauffeur and yes, of course we all have them here in the State Beautiful) has on a wide-brim hat, just like Michelle’s except it’s tilted to the side and has a ribbon chin tie.

    Liked by 2 people

  17. Kevin B, I will ask him where in Michigan, but for now he is still stuck in Washington. Apparently, with such a bumper crop of cherries, all the help is out at receiving and nobody is there for shipping.

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  21. Mumsee, I’d buy him lunch (or dinner or breakfast) at a convenient truck stop if he’s short on time, or take him someplace a little nicer if he has time. I live and work within two miles of I-94 which is the main route from the west into Detroit.

    If he’s picking up cherries he might be more in northern Michigan and not anywhere near me.

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  22. He is bringing cherries from Washington to Sutton’s Bay. He said it looked like all goat trails up. But now that I have broadened the map, because you said 94, it is not so much goat trails. I will let him know and give you his phone: two zero eight 935 five zero two seven. Better you call him than I try to mediate.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. Well, I got my assignment in on time. I have a final exam next week (stats) and a group assignment the week after. I’m still struggling with the asthma, which is discouraging. I start to wonder if I’ll be able to complete the program when I get like this.

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  25. Hope you get to feeling better, Roscuro. Praying as you struggle with the asthma, and with discouragement.

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  26. Peter is mostly right, but I took the photo so it would intentionally leave out some details. 🙂

    It is taken from a bridge crossing the Occoquan River. It’s an artificial waterfall created by the run off from the Occoquan water plant. I obscured the pipe with the trees because it looks nicer. 🙂

    The name Occoquan is derived from a Doeg Algonquian word translated as “at the end of the water.” The rocks in the current photo block the river and create a reservoir above it. The overflow is where the buzzards hang.

    The river then widens and continues thru town and past Occoquan State Park where the osprey’s pics were taken. My M-in_L lives nearby. The ladies like the shopping, I like the scenery.

    I’ll post some more pics later.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occoquan,_Virginia

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

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  27. Question about website development: Are free websites too limited in their capabilities to be useful for a music teacher’s needs?

    A year ago I considered starting a website to advertise my business, but abandoned the idea due to a number of different factors. But I agree with Michelle and others who have expressed the opinion that a web presence is helpful.

    As the summer goes by and I prepare to bid farewell to my short-term student (the one who started in May and leaves for college in late August), I ponder often what my studio will look like a year from now when my other student (not counting my daughter) leaves for college herself. Will I have no clients left?

    Word-of-mouth advertising has had little effect in the years since I reestablished my studio after an 11-year hiatus. It’s been three years now since I resumed offering lessons to the public, and I have had a total of six inquiries in that time. Six. And only four signed up. And two of those have since moved on to other teachers.

    I greatly enjoy what I’m doing with my love of music, but I’m doing so little of it (teaching, anyway), and that is sometimes disheartening.

    Anyway, I think a lot about why things are so different than years ago when I had a thriving piano teaching business, and what I should be doing to recruit more students these days, so I can pass along my love of music to a new generation. (And get paid for it, too. I’ll be frank.)

    With so many people these days looking first to the web when they wonder what’s out there for any category of interest, I see what looks like a great advantage to having a web presence. The problem is that I don’t know how I would pay for web hosting, as I have no credit card, and my husband is against getting credit cards other than for select local stores. He wouldn’t mind if I got, say, a Visa or MasterCard or one of those for myself, he just doesn’t want to go that route himself or jointly. I think we would be approved if we applied jointly, but I doubt I would qualify for a card myself, as the only thing I have ever personally charged was my wedding and bridesmaid dresses on my JCPenney card 31 years ago! I paid that off in a timely manner, but my lack of credit history would certainly be a hindrance in qualifying for a card now, I would think.

    But I digress. Thus my question about free websites, so I don’t have to worry about payment. Or maybe I should ask if there are other ways to pay for web hosting besides with a credit card. (We don’t have a debit card, either, but I can get one with my piano teaching account if something like that works.)

    Sorry for the convoluted post. How many topics did I cover in this thing? 😉

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  28. Mumsee, Sutton’s Bay is in the northwest corner of the state and I’m in the southeast corner. He won’t get anywhere near me unless he’s heading eastward after Sutton’s Bay.

    I chuckled when you said that he’s bringing cherries to Michigan, especially the part of Michigan he’s going to, since it’s a huge cherry-growing area. Reminds me of sending ice to the Eskimos. But who knows with big commerce any more?

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  29. And making snow for the Olympics in Canada and Utah. Apparently, they have to go there to be made into maraschino cherries. Why ruin a good cherry? Big commerce….

    Liked by 1 person

  30. 6: Find out if there is a Facebook group for your area and get involved in it. We have one for Southern York County, Participants may advertise their business or wares once a month and every day there are 50 inquiries such as, “Who is the best and reasonable plumber in the area” and “Recommendations for a dance studio in the area?” Totally free, and it’s the electronic word-of-mouth these days.

    Liked by 1 person

  31. 6 Arrows, is your home in both of your names? If so, you have a credit history. I am not sure if they ask your salary, household salary, or if you simply apply and they accept or reject you. But really, I think most people are eligible for credit cards today, and if it would be helpful for you, it wouldn’t hurt to apply. Just don’t apply for several at the same time, since that raises red flags, but look for one that doesn’t have an annual fee and that has perks you would find useful, and apply.

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  32. 6 Arrows, it depends if someone is looking for a music teacher with your skill set. I’ve done focused searches for local instructors in the arts on the Internet. However, you also need to consider whether you can maintain it. Such searches have shown me a veritable graveyard of dead webpages, with years old copywrite dates and nothing to indicate that the person is still teaching.

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  33. NextDoor is another handy (free) online app — ours has a column devoted to “recommendations,” have used that in my pursuit of various house workers, handymen, etc.

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  34. If your students’ families are on NextDoor, ask them to enter you under the recommendations. The businesses that have a lot of local recommendations are the ones that always catch my attention since they’re my “neighbors” (even though I may not personally know them).

    Unless you’re in a rural area, of course, then NextDoor might not be a frutiful platform.

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  37. You do not need a credit card – a bank debit card looks and works just like a credit card. If you are concerned about it directly hitting your checking account, you can do what we do. We have two checking accounts, both with debit cards. We keep a small balance in the one that we use wherever we think it might be vulnerable (for example, all online transactions). Both are linked in the online banking application, where we can transfer between the two anytime we want (day or night).

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  40. I’m taking all 3 animals in at once the the vet for past-due stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever taken all 3 at one time, only 2 at a time. Not until next month though. Should be a fun morning.

    Interesting story possibility called in — 61-year-old piano tuner who rides unicycles all over the hilly, dirt trails, including up some super-steep hills where fire department trains.

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  41. Thank you for all these recommendations!

    Linda and DJ, I hunted around a little and found some Facebook and NextDoor pages for my area that may prove valuable. I’m not a member of either at this point, so am not able to see what all is on those local sites, but I’m glad you mentioned those. I’d never heard of NextDoor, and don’t know much of the ins and outs of using Facebook as a business tool. There’s a Facebook page for women professionals in my area that might be useful, and a buy/sell/trade FB page for around here. That one only looks like products, though, not services. But, then again, they may have a discussion page or something relating to service opportunities that I can’t see.

    Our local independent music teacher’s group does not have a regular website, only a Facebook page. I can’t tell if there’s more information on their site than what I’m able to see, being a non-FB user (for now, but that might change), but I don’t think there’s much more than upcoming meeting announcements, past events hosted by the group, and content that would mainly pertain to the members of the group, not the general public. I should see if they could add a feature that would be helpful to members of the public looking for music teachers.

    Our state organization lists contact information about member teachers who wish to be included in the database, which I just remembered I did last fall, but no inquiries have come of that. The database is pretty buried on their website, and probably most people would look locally before going to a state site.

    Cheryl, I looked into getting a credit card through our bank a few months ago, but didn’t fill out the application, thinking I didn’t stand a chance with my low 3-digit figure gross monthly income (total household income would not be considered in my case) and little credit history.

    I’m pretty sure both my and my husband’s names were on the home mortgage loan when we bought our house, but, due to unusual circumstances, the loan was paid off about a year later. (Long story I won’t go into here.) So I don’t know that that would help much with a credit rating since it wasn’t over a long term? I don’t know — I’m not very financially savvy beyond simple budgeting.

    Roscuro, that’s a good point about maintaining a site. You don’t want a business site to look as if the owner isn’t there and nothing is happening. When I was researching different ideas for putting together a music teacher’s website, many writers on the subject recommended having a blog or other means of creating content on a regular basis so the site isn’t stagnant. That, of course, takes time. (Which I have more of than if I had a dozen students or something, but I’ve got a few other things to do besides music, too.) 🙂

    Linda, 4:14, thanks for mentioning that. We have our joint checking account, and just this year I opened a separate checking account for all my business transactions. They said I could get a debit card with it, if I wanted. I did not, but still can, and likely will now.

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  42. :blush: I didn’t notice the “noreply” part of the address I posted.
    But you already know all the details of the post.
    Only it has some pictures.
    Sorry, my goof.

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  43. Trying to imagine life without a debit card …. 🙂

    FB is actually very handy for a number of niche interests. Our community has numerous group pages, as does our church (fun to see the ladies of my church organizing a paddle board outing today, who knew?? while I sit here at work). There are lost-and-found pet sites, garage sale sites, bartering sites.

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  50. Hi Jo. Bye Jo.

    Peter L. actually, he works for a Washington company so the plates are probably Washington. He seems to be getting over that way about once a month. That would be twice, going and coming.

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  51. We survived the vet visit. The cats yowled the entire way, both ways. She did the dogs first and they went outside to wait in the shade while the cats were done since the dogs and cats don’t actually see eye to eye.

    Liked by 2 people

  52. Dogs are so excited to go for a ride, anywhere.

    Annie cries on the way to the vet but not on the way home. I actually think having one of the dogs with her in the Jeep 🚙 helps keep her calmer.

    Liked by 1 person

  53. I am home. It was a great day and I think the guy o told you about last week is going to stick with the team!!!!!
    I am going to review for class tomorrow. Get a good night’s sleep and rock it

    I did find out today a friend has abdominal cancer. It isn’t looking good. She has a 1e year old son. Why?
    I know it isn’t a question for me to ask. 😦

    Liked by 2 people

  56. Third Arrow sang in church yesterday as part of a group of high-school/college-age youth (and a few of them, including daughter, sang solo a bit). My daughter wore her hair in two braids, and another of the soloists wore hers in one braid.

    Little girl about four years old, sitting near them, told her mom, “They look like Anna and Elsa” (from Frozen). 😉

    Liked by 3 people

  61. Our nightly summer dog walk takes us by a house where there has been a very large, protective dog in the front yard for years. The dog is now up in years, struggling to get up to give us at least a bark as we pass by. He was fearsome in his day. 😦

    May have an alternative option for the foundation, gardener has a buddy who may be able to do the work.

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  63. DJ, I was out walking on my street yesterday morning, stepped to the side because a car was approaching, but I didn’t really look up. And just as it passed, there was a loud “woof!” practically right in my ear. I thought that dog has his timing down to a science–maybe he gets in trouble for barking, or maybe he has just learned he’s more likely to see people jump if he limits himself to one well-timed, unexpected bark. I don’t think I jumped, but he did surprise me!

    Liked by 1 person

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