29 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-16-17”

  1. Good morning Aj, et. al.’
    I’m getting lots of e-mail from people wanting me to apply for a job.
    I delete them along with other opportunities.

    Today’s picture must have come form Aj. I know it didn’t come from Cheryl. She likes birds, not alligators and snakes.

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  3. Chas, I have photographed alligators (Kim was with me) and also garter snakes, and would photograph a ratller (from a distance) if I ever had a chance. But I certainly prefer birds and mammals!

    You know those cards with nature facts you get in the mail, trying to tempt you to subscribe? I’ve always opened them and saved a few, but could never get my mind around why I was always disappointed in the selection of animals–until last time. I finally realized that the sample cards were meant to appeal to boys, and every single one was a predator: tiger, shark, vampire bat–and really the big cats are the only predators I especially like. Wolves to some extent, too, and bears, but sharks and poisonous snakes and gators and crocs are way low on my level of interest. (Below insects and spiders, but I can’t stand poisonous spiders–black widows were too prevalent in my childhood, and too spooky.)

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  5. Cheryl, we subscribed to those cards for the boy in the home who loved such things. I had forgotten all about those cards.

    We have a big puddle in the driveway. It’s rained a lot and turned much cooler. It is going to continue turning shiverin’ LA dog park cold. Must find down jacket, scarf, and mittens. Miss Bosley acts as a neck scarf at times.

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  7. Morning! Beautiful sunrise here and warmer temps….it’s Fall again 🍂
    Two cups of coffee and here we are once again asking each other “so whatcha going to do today”? ☕️ ( we are going to wash all the windows, taking advantage of the warmer weather!)

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  12. I wonder if they have coyote cards?

    Wolves are beautiful and we’ve had wolf/dog hybrids at the dog park (not many and not regularly) — an attorney neighbor down the street from me also owned 2, but they’re gone now. The hybrids are not encouraged as pets as they can be unpredictable.

    There was a biologist studying the effects of society’s more recent attitude toward predator protection (as opposed to predator control) and how that might play out in a bigger picture in the balance of nature.

    I figure there needs to be a middle ground (but humans aren’t good at middle grounds, we’re better with extremes) between wiping predators out indiscriminately to the point of extinction and not laying a hand on them, ever.

    Foundation job is set to start today, but the guys are also working a roofing job at the same time, so they’ll divide their time I guess. No one’s here yet.

    I also have to find time to get the vet’s today to pick up some sample prescription food for Cowboy. The incontinence pills seem to be working, thankfully.

    And my kitchen leak hasn’t reappeared, I did 2 loads of laundry last night and kept close watch under the sink, nothing. Hmmm.

    Meanwhile, our city editor is at a big meeting of all the city editors in Monrovia today to hear all about our “reorganization.” We should all know more about the grand wizards’ plan after today. New beat assignments based on reporter “teams” chain-wide will be part of it, that we already know. Can’t wait to hear the rest, I’m sure it’ll all save the day (groan). Not that I fault anyone for trying to shake things up, it’s probably better than doing nothing. But some of us have been through so many iterations of these attempts now that we’ve become just a tad cynical, I’m afraid.

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  14. Don’t think, even with all that room, that my family would all fit.

    I’m idle due to the strike today. I’ve decided to go to the doctor, since I have a sore throat that keeps recurring.

    Kizzie, my mother’s eldest sister had the same waiting gap when she was widowed (her husband was almost twenty years older than her), as she was only 56 and she couldn’t get her pension until she was 60. She cleaned houses, and taught Bible clubs in schools, for those years in between, but the cleaning was very hard physical work – she, like her younger sister, is a strong and stubborn woman (not big though, as she is shorter than I am, and I’m short). Her three children were married with young children when she was widowed, and lived across a wide area. Second sibling (both my older siblings stayed with her in the first months) used to go for a month or so every year and stay with her, until my aunt married again. When my aunt did get her pension, she had also been a stay at home mother for most of her life (she married at 21), but she was able to count the years between when her first child was born and her youngest child turned six as years of employment. My mother taught for ten years, but she retired from teaching when Eldest was born, and she was also able to count the 15 years between Eldest’s birth and Youngest’s 6th birthday as employed years. I don’t know if the same rule applies in the States.

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  18. K, it’s a good picture for those memes that go around FB with the caption, “This is why I live where the air hurts my face.”

    Mumsee, I don’t think the two pregnant women in my family would appreciate the hay barn fully, though my younger nieces and nephews might ;-)The old fashioned hay barns of our farming friends were some of the most fun places I played, excellent for hide and seek – though you needed to keep an eye out for the feed chutes in the floor. One such barn had a swing suspended from the rafters that you could get on from the haymow and swing out over the threshing floor on – that was the most fun I had on a swing and I didn’t want to get off. These days, my fear of heights would get in the way of me getting on such a swing.

    Wildlife cards: We seldom subscribed, but my mother saved all the free samples to add to her picture file, in case one of us wanted to do a project on an animal. She was an excellent teacher, and all was potential teaching material that came to her net. Even now, she struggles in getting rid of all the things she saved, in case her homeschooling daughters could use it – Eldest homeschools (in less than three years Eldest Niece will finish high school!), Youngest is already teaching her eldest the alphabet (Little Niece is excited that she will be able to read, as she commandeers any available adult relative to read to her), and Second intends to when the time comes. I tell her the internet has more pictures and factual websites than she could ever have saved, but the habit dies hard, though she is getting better at throwing things out (much better than my father).

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  19. It’s a good thing I’m not given to screaming. I was sitting at my little desk last night, after the family and other upstairs boarder had gone to bed, when I spotted a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked, and sure enough, a mouse had come from under the door. It scurried out again when it caught sight of me, but I’ve got ask for a mouse trap when I see one of the landlords.

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  21. Last night on the prayer thread, I mentioned not wanting to tell Nightingale what I had found out until morning, because she needed a good night’s sleep.

    Then The Boy woke up around one-something (they were sleeping downstairs – they do that occasionally), & had an accident on the bathroom floor. As Nightingale attended to him, she realized that he was burning up with a fever, & then he said he felt like he might throw up. So she was up for a little while with him. (He didn’t throw up after all.) She is very tired today, but needs to work tonight. (I’m feeling very tired myself.)

    I got the application filled out for the VA. We’ll see how that goes.

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  22. Speaking of my small relative reminded me of a scene my mother related to me from when she took care of Youngest’s little ones during Sunday school last Sunday. The four year old acted all withdrawn and wouldn’t speak or interact with her until it was time to go to church. My mother asked her then why she was angry, and four year old replied that she wasn’t angry, she was stern. “Who do you know is stern,” asked my mother? “Daddy,” replied the little one. It isn’t the first time she has channeled the emotions of her parent – my mother said she was once treated to a grave lecture from then three year old about not ‘pressuring’ her since she ‘had a lot on her mind’ that sounded like the little one was reproducing what she heard from an adult. I grieve to see such lessons in emotional manipulation being taught and so thoroughly reproduced in mere four year old. Youngest is sometimes very distressed at the attitude of disdain that four year old can display for someone who doesn’t find favour at the time. I cannot help thinking that four year old is only displaying a pattern seen elsewhere.

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  23. From Friday:
    Chas: Peter orders us to behave and takes off to parts unknown.
    Who knows what mischief he might be getting into???

    mumsee: One does not want to know.

    But some would need to know before any rumors start. Mrs. L and I were at a fall bible conference in the Ozarks at a location that gets almost zero cell phone service and has no Wifi. It was great. Of course, there was one location on the balcony of the cafeteria one might get service. So you’d see a few people standing up there using their phones.

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  24. I got to spend yesterday with my son and DIL. We met at their church where we sang a song that had the lines:
    Come like a rushing wind
    Come light the fire again
    Come like a burning flame
    Have Your way
    Have Your way

    All I could think of was Michelle’s situation and I didn’t know the song, so I just prayed for Michelle and didn’t sing those words.

    I spent the afternoon at their home and DIL took me to her place of work and gave me a pedicure – we had a great talk during that time.

    Then husband came for supper (he had been working) and then DIL’s parents came and some friends who were also at their wedding in Mexico. It was a fun time!! There were 5 dogs there, some more well behaved than others, but it was so fun. Son and DIL are gifted with hospitality and their home is a wonderful place for friends and family to gather. I’m so happy for them.

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  27. Michelle is back in the land of “what? me worry?” Day 8 of evacuation is starting to feel very old–for all of us.

    The fire near our house, Oakmont for those of you interested or keeping score, is still only 15% curtailed despite heroic actions of firefighters overnight. (Was that last night? I can’t even keep track anymore. What day is it?)

    Oldest son was going stir crazy and when we learned this morning their area may have evacuation lifted and the kids are out of school for another week, he jumped up and they left for Idaho–Boise–where daughter-in-law’s family lives and where a new niece is seeing the world.

    Lots of drama with that departure, but the house is now quiet–especially since my other daughter-in-law took her daughters to the beach and I’m home alone with just Tasha the cat–who doesn’t look like a kitten anymore. The trauma has aged her . . . 🙂

    I need to rewrite tomorrow’s launch blog post yet again. Sweet friends are now suggesting that since God knew all this would happen, He has something unusual planned.

    That’s an interesting thought–and I’m not sure how to respond other than, “we’ll see.”

    My Bible study is cancelled, our home party is cancelled, I’m just going to do a little talk about Biddy, fire, resillience and St. Paul’s Cathedral during the London blitz–at some point during the day on FB.

    Meanwhile, the Books & Such authors (the literary agency where I work), have decided to bless me by all sharing about Biddy tomorrow. Teary eyed, surprised and so very thankful for their efforts on Biddy’s behalf. It’s a wonderful gift, even if only a dozen do so.

    I’m feeling a bit undone–except I’m also very tired.

    With the wild ones out of the house, A and I are cleaning–the washer will run for days, now. The chances of something being broken are reduced–one of the Adorables has that way about it. We had a long discussion about what she was thinking when she decided to sit on a small granite table and broke it into pieces. We’ll see if Grandpa can fix it.

    She said, “sorry.” Which is good, but it was one of those token sorries–so we talked a little more about being careful, THINKING before acting (can 5 year olds do that?) and pausing a moment to think about someone else. I don’t know if it did any good, but I didn’t punish or scold her–which is what usually happens.

    It’s hard to be a parent. It’s tricky being a grandmother.

    Waiting is hard, even though I’ve had such peace–all those prayers, I’m sure. My problems are so minor compared to so many, life has completely changed in our smoke-filled valley these days.

    Thanks for your prayers, too.

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  28. Michelle, the waiting game is sometimes the hardest one of all to play.

    Kizzie @3:00, my mother asked four year old how she felt when her Daddy acted stern. Four year old replied, “Sad.” My mother then gently pointed out that when four year old acted stern it made other people feel sad. But that reply shows how much the little ones’ hearts are affected by their father’s moods. No parents are perfect, but the best act more out of love, and less out of concern about their personal position of power or their reputation.

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  29. Church yesterday was cathartic. We hugged each other, cried together, rejoiced together. Pastor’s prayer is posted on FB, a video, on my page. 12-15 families lost their homes; half of them were there for the 8:15 service–two of the six singers up front. We sangn praise songs and belted them out. It was good, so very good, to be together and hear the stories.

    Most of the stories are wild–people struggling to get out of their houses with fire raining down. The paper reporter the case of a woman who woke up to find a fireman in her bedroom, “You got to get out now, ma’am.”

    Funny stories–woman answered the pounding front door and realized she wasn’t wearing anything . . .

    One friend evacuating in a mad scramble with his daughter-in-law’s bossy mother on the phone, “Go south, Gary, don’t go north, it’s not safe.”

    “Marianne, I’m going to do what the police officer is telling me to do . . . ”

    He lost it all. The widower of the woman who died in that freak telephone pole accident last year. He’s remarkably upbeat–but he took his Sunday School class directly to Scripture and my husband said it was very good.

    Back to work.

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