84 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-23-17”

  4. I have been chewing on this since Wednesday. There is a man in my office who is a Christian. He has Wednesday morning prayer in his office every week. I have attended a couple of times. This past Wednesday I popped in his office to ask him a question. He asked if I was OK. My standard reply is that “I’m fine, how are you?” He asked me if I was really OK, so I asked that he keep BG in his prayers (I have had people praying for that child almost her entire life). He asked if we could pray right then and I accepted. Once we were finished he said he had something to say but wasn’t sure if he should. I told him I would rather hear it than not. He told me he has a son in his 40’s who still is struggling. Then he told me that he truly believed that BG would come through this but there is going to be some real pain before she does.
    I am not saying that I am “borrowing” trouble, or that I think he is somehow prophetic, but it confirmed a feeling inside of me. My very breath is a prayer that God will protect her. She was prayed into existence and I can’t think that God would give her to me to let something really bad happen to her. I do believe that the lessons she learns in life she will have to learn the hard way. Some she has already learned and has shared with me. A few I warned her about but she plowed ahead and has had to tell me I was right.

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  5. Someone I am acquainted with is seriously ill. Facebook has been full of prayers for her all weekend. This morning I read a post where someone had asked for an update. Someone else replied that she had passed away. Another person posted that she hadn’t, but it was serious and her family was with her.
    EVEN IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE HAS DIED. PLEASE DO NOT SAY ANYTHING ON FACEBOOK. LET THE FAMILY TELL EVERYONE WHEN THEY ARE READY! Think how the children will feel to have their phones blowing up with sympathy when they are still praying for a miracle. Think how the person will feel if that miracle comes and she makes it through this. IT ISN’T YOUR STORY TO TELL.

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  6. Kim. I believe that God still reveals things to His people.
    I would believe what the man says and make it a part of my prayers.
    My prayers for BB have always been for protection against evil. We never know what form it may take. But misfortune is not always evil.
    That is, good may come of it.

    Keep praying and “do the next right thing”.

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  8. Pretty good camouflage for that lizard 🙂

    I have a sweatshirt on this morning, we’re in one of those weather patterns where it’s scorching hot in the day and cold at night — and very, very dry. But I’d rather have this than that humid heat that keeps it warm and miserable night and day. At least the cool nights help your body to recover.

    I still need to move the jeep out of the driveway for the foundation guys (they typically arrive by 7:30) and text the gardener about what I want him to do today and warn him about the foundation work. I need him to clear away the hedges and branches from the windows on the other side of the house so the window crew can easily access them when they come 11/9, so that will keep him on the opposite side of the house from the foundation workers.

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  13. It’s pouring rain again. Art just came home unexpectedly because he forgot to take his office keys with him. I can’t imagine doing the trip three times this morning in Atlanta traffic in the rain. It is taking all morning for him to get in to the office. 😥

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  15. DJ, last night your final post, speaking of dark clothing in winter, said, “Dark isn’t ‘dreary.’ it’s rich and deep and beautiful, comforting, enveloping, soothing.” Yes and no. If you live in a region where winter means that sometimes for a week at a time the sky is gray, not blue (and I don’t mean the clouds in the sky), going to work and seeing everyone dressed in gray, black, or brown can be rather depressing. Fortunately the jewel colors are also winter colors, and so I tend to wear a lot of those, but my co-workers usually didn’t. But in Chicago the drab dress and drab skies can really be too much . . . especially the winter that our office was in the first floor of a building that (for safety reasons, I assume) had no windows on the first floor, when my blinds at home didn’t work and I hadn’t yet been able to find any that fit (and thus couldn’t open the blinds until a friend tracked down a place that could do custom-made ones), and when I was driving to work in the dark and going home in the dark since after all it was winter. That was a very dreary winter, and in seasons like that, you really just don’t want to see everyone in gray and black and brown!

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  16. Cheryl, your post reminded my of yesterday’s goings on about what to wear.
    I go by the philosophy of Elvera’s brother:
    “If you put them together, they go together.”
    Makes it real easy.

    But once, when I was returning home from the Naval War College, Elvera picked mu up at the airport. I don’t remember what I was wearing, but Elvera says she almost didn’t walk out with me. I was so “mismatched”.

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  17. I might grow wearing of it eventually, I acknowledge — but I still love real winters. 🙂 We never get them here, of course. But I’ve always preferred cold to hot climates & it never (ever) gets ‘cold’ enough for me here at the coast.

    Don’t worry, Chas, I’d be trampled to death — I didn’t even notice the elephant in that one picture. I’ve be scanning the ground when ka-boom, I’d be a goner under foot !

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  18. Kim, 8:07, my husband’s first cousin announced on Facebook my father-in-law’s death, before all the sons, daughters and grandchildren had been notified. That isn’t something for a niece to be broadcasting unless authorized to do so, and she wasn’t. It takes a while to get a hold of family, especially in large ones. My FIL had eight children and eighteen grandchildren — some of the younger generation saw it on FB from a relative they hardly know before hearing about it from their parents.

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  19. Kim, my sister isn’t on Facebook, and really didn’t even have a computer until very recently. (Her husband had an old laptop.) When her husband died, she was racing to the hospital to see him, not sure she would get there on time. (As it turned out, he died in the ambulance on the way there.)

    She found out later that someone posted on Facebook, “Pray for the T—- family. [Name] is on her way home to tell the children that their father is dead.” She had very mixed feelings about that–she was glad for the prayers, but to put it on Facebook before much of anyone knew, and to risk the children finding out that way? Honestly, that’s someone who wasn’t thinking. Had I somehow been “friends” with the person who posted that, I would have found it a very startling way to find out, and I imagine many in their church did, too. (It wasn’t like he was in the hospital with a serious illness. He was at work, 46 years old, and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance because he walked into the head office and told them he needed to get to the hospital.)

    But yeah, social media can really be misused. I still haven’t talked myself into rejoining Facebook, and it has been more than six years since I went off. (I got off before we married–I was discreet even on here as to when we were marrying, though I think the news got on World by then anyway–because my house was going to be left vacant for the week of our honeymoon, though it was listed for sale, and then left vacant afterward since we would be in Indiana. But I at least didn’t want the vacancy noted before we “closed it up” on our way back through Nashville after our wedding.)

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  20. Fifth and Sixth Arrows have their marching orders for the morning. Today will be the first time they’ll be home alone (together) while the rest of us are out and about with various appointments and prior commitments. I’m home with them now, but when I head out in a little under an hour, it will be another hour until Third and Fourth Arrows get home. Hubby might or might not get home sometime within that hour, but probably not. We all feel they are ready for this time to be home without anyone older present, and they both are comfortable with the idea, too.

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  21. weary

    And, yes, it was a pain to pull on boots and layers just to go out the front door every time (when I’ve been staying in snow states with friends or relatives). But I still like it 🙂 — sometimes all that year-round sun-sun-sun just wears me down.

    OK, Jeep is moved & gardener texted. Oh, I need to put the check box for gardener out on the front step. I usually leave it in the back but told him to skip the back today as the dogs would not be locked in & the foundation work will be in the way of access there anyway.

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  22. And now for something special and out of the ordinary for me:

    I’ve been sitting on a secret, and so has someone else here. Time for the big reveal. 🙂

    I got an email a while back from a friend on this site. After the greeting line, the email began, “I was wondering if you would like to meet for lunch next week?”

    Yes I would. 🙂 And we did.

    And that is how I came to meet our lovely Jo. 🙂

    I did a little driving to our meet-up destination, and she did a lot. We enjoyed lunch at a restaurant overlooking one of the rivers in my region, and had a nice chat over lunch and a walk along the river and through special gardens afterwards.

    Beautiful memories (okay, except for maybe one — we’ll try to forget about that snake in our path at one spot 😉 ), with meet-up pictures on my phone and nice souvenirs from PNG for the kids as great reminders of our afternoon.

    A most delightful day. Thank you again, Jo. When 2017 began, I would have never guessed this would be the year in which I could be part of a blog meet-up. So glad to have met you, and hope we can do so again sometime. 🙂

    Oh, and by the way, if I knew how to get pictures from my phone to the computer and how to send them to AJ, I would send our meet-up pics. But I don’t know how to do that, or if I’ve got the right equipment for that transfer, but Jo, if you want to send any of the pictures you have of our meet-up, you are welcome to do that.

    Now I can say, along with several others of you, that I know Jo is real. 🙂

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  23. Yikes, 6 Arrows. When my mom died, we had to get the police to look in on her, and sure enough she was dead. But meanwhile I had talked to most in my family to ask if they had talked to Mom in the last 24 hours (in case she had told someone she’d be at some other location overnight or something, because if that was the case, then I wouldn’t call the police just because I couldn’t reach her at home).

    When we knew she was dead, I then called everyone who didn’t already know. (My sister and I were talking to the police, so we knew, and my younger brother found out accidentally because he called Mom’s house to talk to Mom. When someone else–the police–answered, he said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I have the wrong number,” and they said, “Maybe not–who were you trying to reach?” He told them his mother, and her name, and they told him they were police, sent to the house by his sisters, and his mother was dead. So he ended up finding out before we did, and he called my sister in tears while she was on the phone with me, on the other line.) Well, as the oldest girl, I took responsibility to inform the family, so I quickly called all my siblings and then Mom’s living brother. When I called one house, my adult niece answered the phone. I asked to speak to her mom–I knew her dad wasn’t home, though her dad was the biological connection, my brother–and my niece asked, “Did you find Grandma.” It wasn’t her place to find out before her parents did, so I said only “Yes” and she handed over the phone. Whether she knew by my “yes” that her grandmother was dead, I don’t know, but I deliberately informed first-generation family and let them tell their own families.

    Fast-forward a few years, and that same sister-in-law (the niece’s mother) was herself dying of cancer. My brother set up a Caring Bridge website, which I read frequently. He told me he wouldn’t have the heart to call everyone when she actually died, and asked if I could be the one to spread the news to our siblings, and I said yes, I could do that. So on the day that I knew she was dying, I stayed off the internet to keep the phone open for his call. (I still had dial-up.) And then my brother called me, and his first question was, “Have you been on Caring Bridge recently?” And I said not today. He then told me he had just posted that his wife was dead. And I thought (but didn’t say), “You’re kidding, right? You posted the news for anyone and everyone who reads Caring Bridge before even telling your own sister who is the one who has been asked to tell your family?” (My brother is relatively well known in his circles, so a lot of people I don’t know would have been following him on Caring Bridge.) To me that was just astounding, though of course it was his choice to make. But it would be like posting on World’s blog that my husband had proposed to me, or posting on here that he had died, before letting my own siblings know, and I can’t imagine doing that! In my case, in the seven years I had lived in Nashville by then, I had spent a lot of time with his wife (she had helped me fix up my house after I bought it, I went to visit them several times a year, and then I was over there frequently when she had cancer), and she had really become like a sister to me.

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  24. Jo has a photo or two of you 6 Arrows, because I saw it. 🙂

    Normal. Today. Except I slept another 10 hours.

    I got up, did My Utmost for my FB writer page, picked up the newspaper from the driveway, ate breakfast and read the paper–oops, cat on my lap–am dressed and just about ready for the gym.

    Because my teenage housecleaner can only come this morning, I spent last exhausted early evening picking up the house in order for her to clean. I can hardly imagine what life will be like this afternoon!

    My list of things to do is long–starting with my Bible study and some serious sitting and just praying to find my way back to real life.

    But I have a real life to restart. 24 families in our church lost their homes. Have I said that before? They’re never far from my heart.

    Yesterday, one of them completely broke down during the communion portion of the service. A rational engineer, the losses in his life the last 5 years have been near total–except for his wife and two daughters, 3 and 8.

    Since I was sitting behind them and love them both, I reached out to put my hand on his back and just prayed. His wife did the same.

    When he came up “for air,” I slipped back to my seat at the other end of the pew, and cried myself.

    So much grieving, so much loss. It’s hard to take in.

    Later, the wife said the passage about your treasures are in heaven is more relevant to her than ever–“because other than my family, that’s where everything I own is, now.”

    Up and down. Those who lost houses the first night have had two weeks to process the loss. Adrenaline has kept them going, but the crashes–particularly in finally seeing the sites–are inevitable. I anticipate 35 years of crisis training will come in handy here.

    More later. Off to DANCE!

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  29. I remember calling my uncle, my last living relative from the previous generation. (I didn’t know then that the wife of another uncle–thus an aunt, though I don’t remember ever meeting her–is actually still alive, but I only have one biological uncle left, so when Mom died she was virtually the last of her generation, on either side, when I was 36 years old.) Anyway, I called to talk to my uncle, to tell him he was the last survivor of the three children, which isn’t really shocking since he’s the youngest, but is still a sad moment I am sure.

    His wife told me, “He’s up on a ladder painting.” Took me half a second to ponder and decide no, this is a moment you interrupt an old man up on a ladder painting. (He would have been about 75.) So I told his wife (who has since died of Alzheimer’s), “It’s important–Mom is dead.” And with the wisdom of a wife, she told him only the first part and let me tell him the rest (after he got down off that ladder). “It’s Cheryl, and she says it’s important.” And I told him, and he was so sad. But somewhere in the course of that conversation, he told me that he and Mom always signed off phone calls and conversations with saying they would meet again, “Here, there, or in the air.” They hadn’t seen each other for 14 years, and about that long again since the next to the last time they had met. I think they must have both known that the next time would be “in the air,” but he just wasn’t expecting to lose her just yet.

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  31. Corrie Ten Boom told a woman, she was going to hire as an assistant, that she must dress in brighter, more colorful, clothing. She had had enough of drab in a concentration camp. THAT was man’s doing and not the gorgeous beauty of God’s created world.

    The thing about people posting too soon about someone’s death comes from pride. It is also the reason that many rumors and gossip are spoken or posted. It is easy to fall for the temptation of being ‘the one in the know.’ It is also selfishness, because of the lack of consideration for others. We Christians are good at adding words to make it seem all about concern for someone. Of course, anyone can really just be in error, but the other should be considered. It should cause us to pause and think.

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  33. ladder advice? I am planning on purchasing a ladder online, probably from Walmart, and then shipping it to PNG. The shipping is easy because they take care of that for us (how much it will cost, who knows?). But trying to chose a ladder. I am thinking a 20 foot extension ladder. The front of our four flats is single story, but the back is two story. We would only need the extra length for painting or changing the bulb in one of the security lights. However we need a ladder for cleaning the screen on the water tanks frequently as that is our only source of water and for getting on the roof to wash the solar panel and clean the gutters. Don’t worry, I hire teens to do that.
    and the ground slopes where you have to put the ladder to clean the tank screen, so now I put a piece of 2×4 to level the ladder.

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  36. The snake decided to crash our party.

    I don’t know if the picture of Jo and me I have on my phone will work for a header on here, but after some experimenting (fumbling around, really, with some missteps along the way, surprise, surprise 🙂 ), 3rd Arrow and I managed to get the pic from my “dumb” phone, onto her smart phone via picture message, which she emailed to me as an attachment, and which I forwarded to AJ at the hotmail address listed on the About page. Hope that one is operational. Whether the pic is usable, having a good number of pixels and other things I don’t understand is another matter!

    In any case, if it does work for a header, Jo will be the good-looking one on the right, and I will be the one having a bad hair day. 😉 Just look to the right, ignore the left side, and you’ll be good. 🙂

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  38. My hair was really flat that day!

    Jo, I have to tell you . . . I showed our meet-up pictures to my youngest sister, and she said, “Is she younger than you are?” 🙂

    I think we should swap numbers on here — 49 for me, 62 for you. 😀 You are very youthful-looking and energetic. I enjoy a brisk walk where no one is telling me, “Slow down, you’re going too fast!”

    A fine day I will always treasure. 🙂

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  40. Book party was fun yesterday. Three friends put together a British tea and appropriate sandwiches and cakes. Kim sent an antique tea pot which paired nicely with my grandmother’s little pitcher from her childhood (they, and a vase belonging to my mother, were in the bubble peanuts in the box Kim sent!) We had flowers and about 40 people. It was lovely.

    I spoke twice, once on Biddy and Resilience and the second time about the writing of My Utmost for His Highest (several writers in attendance). I was exhausted by the time I went home, sat down for a bit and then started picking things up.

    I managed to break my toe as well.

    At this point, everything that needs to be dealt with is either on the kitchen table or stashed around this heavily cluttered office. I have things to do this afternoon, however, and so I’m off to run errands (including buy food!).

    Dancing was wonderful, though a bit off putting. We had four cheerleaders from the local high school (high schools don’t start back until next week, can you imagine losing three weeks of school the fall of your senior year?????) join us, in MY spot. They laughed, though, to discover how even middle aged women have got some moves! 🙂

    Later.

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  41. Joy! Joy! The sun came out, and I received Michelle’s book. I already started into it. Wonderful beginning!

    Back to real life. Miss Bosley just threw up from eating her dry food too quickly. We can’t have too much joy in one day or else we would get spoiled.

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  42. back to normal today, but I can’t believe I inivited a whole group over for lunch tomorrow! What was I thinking?? Someone came up to me yesterday to tell me that they were going to begin to support me. What a joyful encouragement. Someone I knew only by sight. God is good.

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  45. Good news all around, Jo. Glad to hear you’re feeling better, and am so glad to hear your additional support report. 🙂

    Michelle’s Biddy book arrived in my mailbox today — more to smile about. 🙂 Thanks, Michelle! Looking forward to starting it.

    Back to domestic business for me. Blessings on your day, fellow wanderers.

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  48. Michelle’s comment about middle aged women reminded me of a question I’ve been pondering lately. When does middle age end? And what comes after it?

    I used to think 60 was really old. Now not so much…

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  52. Does anyone know of a person 90 years old who got alcohol poisoning and needed to go to rehab? I know many enjoy drinking alcohol, and I can not understand why some of us hear of or experience the worst side of it whereas for others it is just an easy going and cheerful thing to do socially.

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  53. Jumping in here before reading any comments. . .

    Having a bad day today. This morning was stressful as I prepared to finally get around to calling probate court, to find out which forms I needed to print off. Before calling, I searched for the titles to the two cars (Nightingale’s is in Hubby’s name, but I forget why), & the deed to the house. Well, you’ve heard about Hubby’s crazy filing system, & the saga of the (still) missing marriage certificate, so you can imagine that I was nervous as I began.

    I stumbled across the house deed while looking for the titles, & then found the title to the Chevy Impala (Hubby’s car, originally my parents’). But the title to Nightingale’s Honda Civic was not in any of the filing cabinets. So I started looking in other areas where he had some random (to me) paperwork. Found it in a corner of the desk, in the back of some other paperwork.

    Called probate court & was directed to the needed forms, then began filling them out. The first one was pretty straight-forward, & I was able to find the info I needed. (This would have been more complicated & time-consuming before the internet, as some of the info I needed was available online.) The second one asked some questions that I could not figure out due to the wording, so I will have to wait until we go to the probate court office, or maybe ask my SIL, who has gone through this at least a couple times.

    A possible wrinkle – My MIL’s name is still on the house deed, as a co-owner. It lists Hubby & me as owners, & her as co-owner. I am guessing that Hubby did not bother going through with the probate court process after she died, since she didn’t leave any other property, & we had gone through a quit-claim with the house. (But then, why would her name still be on it?) Back to the files I went, in search of MIL’s death certificate. Found a certified copy, but could find nothing with her social security number. (Not sure I’ll need either of those, but wanted to be prepared in case I do.)

    After all that, I cleaned up a mess in the kitchen, & then Nightingale pulled back into the driveway after picking up Chickadee in the Impala (Hubby’s car). (Nightingale’s car gets parked in the driveway on the other side of the house.) Heidi saw the Impala coming in, & made this excited sound she makes, & her tail started going like crazy. It was the response she would get when Hubby came home, & the first time I’d seen her do that since the last time he came home from work.

    That hit me really hard, remembering how she would do that every day when he came home from work, all excited to see Daddy, & thinking that he would never be coming home from work again. Since then, I’ve been feeling sadder, & feeling down, more than I have since the first week after his death. (Today also marks three weeks since Hubby’s death, so that could be part of it, too.)

    Now Chickadee & I are childsitting for the rest of the evening.

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  55. I’m sorry this has been a difficult day Kizzie…I do not handle filtering through papers well myself…sometimes I feel like I know where things are, but then again…I am more of a important papers in a shoe box kind of person!
    Could it be that when you filed a quit claim deed on the house that you were not given a hard copy of the new deed with just your names on it? When we paid off the house, the county did not send a hard copy of the deed….they said they have it on file and that we do not need a paper copy. Continued prayers for you that He will clear the way for things to get accomplished in a non stress manner… ❤️

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  56. Regarding drab colours in cold weather, I was thinking the other day that a large percentage (say maybe, 40 percent) of the winter coats that I see adults wearing around here are black. I am among that large proportion. There are a few reasons why that may be. For one thing, winters can be dirty, and black doesn’t show the dirt, although the salt stains, from the road salt, are somewhat visible. But I think it may have something to do with the contrast with the surrounding landscape. The reflection from the snow can be quite blinding, so wearing something that is in stark contrast to the snow can actually make one more visible. Even at night, if there is snow in the background, someone wearing black would be visible.

    I’ve always loved winter and autumn, and never understood those who hated them with a passion. However, my prolonged sojourn in the city has made me think that some of that hatred may come from spending the cold months in the city, where the streets are dingier and dirtier during the winter than out in the country. I have missed, in the two autumns I’ve been here, the glorious colours that were typical around my parents place. True, this year, no place has had much colour, but there is more opportunity to see the colour where there are more trees. The city I live in does have a lot of trees, but depending on where you are, the buildings can get in the way of seeing all those trees. I miss having a clear view of the sky. One reads the sky in the country, but the horizons narrow in the city. Also, as I discovered last winter, paved sidewalks are decidedly hazardous in the winter, as treacherous ice builds up, while walking in the packed show along roadsides or through the forest in the country is a lot more secure underfoot.

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  58. That is funny, Roscuro, as I have been thinking what a gorgeous fall this has been. Brilliant yellows and oranges and reds. But this is the first time in a long time we are having fall in late October rather than late August.

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  59. It has been unusually warm here, Mumsee. It is about 63 F right now, while the average temperature for October is 49 F. One of the children of the family who gave me a ride home from church yesterday was exclaiming about being able to wear sandals when it was almost Halloween. So, although the leaves are falling (they fall due to the change in the day length), many of them didn’t turn the brilliant colours they usually do – there is a lot of brown or drab yellow and less gold, orange, and scarlet. My parents live several zones (basically, the zones determine what can be grown due to the length of the growing season and the severity of the cold) further north than the city, but they have only had one or two real frosts, while here I do not think there has been any significant frost, which is quite unusual for late October.

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  60. I was just out with daughter, working a bit on the gardens, eating some kale, doing chores. Definitely shirt sleeve weather. But we have had enough light frosts to get the leaves to stop producing chlorophyll before dropping off. Lovely. The willows down below are just starting to turn yellow. In years past, we have had leaves just turn brown in August and stay there all winter. Or drop. Or the beautiful colors of this year. It varies. One of the many things I love about four seasons.

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  62. In reply to Cheryl’s question on Rants & Raves, I’ve not had the opportunity to read Qureshi’s entire book, but a short account exists online, and three dreams are recounted in that account. It was interesting that the first dream he recounts, even he was doubtful of the interpretation. The second was, as the Christian who was witnessing to him immediately realized, strongly reminiscent of the parables Christ told about the feast of the bridegroom. The third would have been unremarkable to most people, but the interpretation he gave it seems logical based on his cultural background. He did consult his parents, who had a book, to help him with the interpretations, but the interpretations that the book gave were actually quite wide open to their own interpretation, and it was Qureshi who ultimately drew his own conclusions. Here is the link: http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Qureshi/testimony.htm. Notice that the dreams, in and of themselves, did not bring him to the point of salvation. He had to come to the point of confessing Christ as Lord, which he did:

    Not long after, I lay awake deep into the night, for sleep was ashamed to fall upon me. I had denied God long enough. The words of Christ found in Matthew’s 10th chapter would allow me no rest:
    Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (vv. 32-33)
    It was then that I said to God, “I submit. I submit that Jesus Christ is Lord of Heaven and Earth, and that He came to this world to die for my sins. I am a sinner, and I need Him for redemption. Christ, I accept You into my life.”

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  64. I should observe that the way Qureshi writes may feel strange to the English speaking Western mind. We have our own way of presenting logical sequences which is quite different than Qureshi’s method. As part of my readings in the course on Middle Eastern history, we have been reading translations of historical documents written originally in Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic. I have been reading Nassar’s account of how he became an Egyptian revolutionary, and the way he recounts his journey, in layered flashbacks based on points raised by the preceding flashback, is a very similar pattern to how Qureshi lays out his testimony. It is good for us to read things written outside our culture, not only does it widen our perspective, but it also exercises our brain by making us use it in different patterns than the well worn grooves of Western thought. Such mind exercise is thought by science to help form new connections between neurons, reducing the impact the slow decay of an aging brain will have upon mental processes.

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  65. Apropos of nothing, except this made me chuckle. It is from the account I mentioned above by Nassar, speaking about the aftermath of the 1952 Egyptian revolt against the British, about the problems trying to organize a new state:

    In addition to all this, there was a confirmed individual egotism. The word ‘I’
    was on every tongue. It was the solution to every difficulty, the cure for every ill.
    I had many times met eminent men—or so they were called by the press—of
    every political tendency and color, but when I would ask any of them about
    a problem in the hope he could supply a solution, I would never hear anything
    but ‘I’.
    Economic problems? He alone could understand them; as for the others, their
    knowledge on the subject was that of a crawling infant. Political issues? He alone
    was expert. No one else had got beyond the a-b-c’s of politics. After meeting one
    of these people, I would go back in sorrow to my comrades and say, ‘It is no use.
    If I had asked this fellow about the fishing problems in the Hawaiian Islands, his
    only answer would be “I”.’ [From ‘Egypt’s Liberation’ by Jamal Abd al-Nasir (Nassar)]

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  69. I would have requested one but I have not been very successful at getting them. I don’t think I ever managed to get the last one I wanted from you. Not your fault, it is a problem on my end. So I did not consider it good stewardship of resources to ask.

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  71. Kevin @ 3:39
    I didn’t start feeling “old” until about 75.
    I think it has to do with a person’s approach to aging.
    My dad retired to the easy chair and was soon dependent on it.
    I joined the YMCA in Hendersonville and worked out until I was 85. I told my cohorts there that I kept doing that so I could keep doing it. I visited the Y here but circumstances prevents me from working out regularly.
    Getting old aint no fun.

    I have concluded that after 75, all change is bad.

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  72. Hmm, seems the newest twenty year old has been given a week’s notice to vacate the rental he is in. Apparently, rolling the boss’s (who also happens to be the landlord) water truck was not the best idea. We won’t be offering a place here as I don’t believe he has given up the alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, on line gambling, etc. But we could use wisdom on how to advise him. He is not the brightest bulb but he is capable of work and many people have employed him but his irresponsibility showed him the door. He is big bio brother to sixteen year old son, guess we can see which path he is shooting for.

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  76. Roscuro, I have read multiple books by Ravi Zacharias and heard him speak several times, and he’s easily one of my favorite speakers, so I don’t think the cultural differences make a writer all that inaccessible to me.

    We have very little fall color here, as well. Younger daughter has driven up to New England to see the fall color, and I think she chose the wrong year and probably the wrong week. But I think she was also looking for an excuse to go back to New England, and also simply taking a break from 80-hour work weeks, so she’ll enjoy it anyway. (As I’m writing this, she is calling in, and she is thrilled with the color she is seeing!)

    Roscuro, my first experience with fall and winter was Chicago. For contrast, my junior-high years (6th, 7th, and 8th grades) Phoenix never once got down to freezing, and I did not see snow in Phoenix until I was 18 years old. (I’d seen it other places by then, northern Arizona and Missouri.) And in Phoenix the leaves simply turned yellow and fell off, and they did so in a staggered cycle, so we truly had no distinct season such as fall–it was basically just that 100-degree heat was over for a few months, and that was it.

    So, I moved to Chicago, which has few trees, and thus very little fall color, and then in winter I dealt with gray skies, snow and cold I wasn’t used to, icy sidewalks, snow that turned brown almost immediately, and very difficult winter driving conditions. I finally learned that I could deal with either snow or cold, but not both at the same time. (Don’t dump eight inches of snow and then drop below freezing for a week, with the snow icing over and staying in place.) And I was used to the wide-open blue skies of the west, and found long weeks of gray skies and early nightfall depressing.

    Even in Phoenix, I liked the heat and disliked the cold–and cold in Phoenix generally meant 40 degrees (F) and up, not freezing temperatures (32 F and below). We kids would point out to each other if the dog’s water dish had a skim of ice on it–it was noteworthy. On the rare occasions it did get down to freezing, it was generally just overnight, and back up above freezing by the time we got up. So going from that to a climate where the high temperature for a week at a time might be below zero–that was really hard to take. And snow in Chicago is really only pretty while it is actively falling–after that it has been plowed and shoveled and driven on, with phlegm spat onto it, and it simply is ugly stuff. I once walked past a dead cat frozen in the snow with a snarl on its face to get to church–the whole winter. At best I only endure cold weather, I just don’t like it. It was a sacrifice to choose to move back to snow country to get a husband and children–I sold my winter coat when I left Chicago and expected and hoped never to need another. It’s bearable with a husband, and especially now that I am freelance and don’t have to leave the house daily, and rarely have to drive in it, and when I do drive in it I am not dealing with potholes, cars parked on each side of the street, and rude Chicago drivers in addition to the snow and ice. But I’d happily see snow just once or twice each winter, for just a few hours before it melts, as I did in Nashville. I don’t like seeing it on the ground for week after week, even when it isn’t city snow. It’s pretty when it comes down, but a day or two later it isn’t–it’s time to be gone.

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  78. I’m not even out of work yet, the day can’t end. Besides, I won’t be able to use any drains or toilets for 4 hours tonight while the glue cures. (Yes, a new stretch of sewer line under the house was replaced today, made sense to do it now that the foundation is all exposed and we’d already went to such great lengths to replace all 80 feet of the rest of it down the driveway.) Foundation guys were called away today so they weren’t at my house. Hoping the gardener made it over there. Won’t be able to see much though as it’ll be dark when I get home. Temps have plummeted from 97 to 88 now that the sun is going down.

    Ah, text came in, I’ll be able to use “the facility” by 9 p.m. Not too bad.

    Still, I’ve probably sprouted more gray hairs today, I’m thinking.

    I do think working beyond full retirement age (if we’re able) is often good for us and it’s something I’m hoping to be able to do at least for another few years. If this job ends or just becomes impossible/annoying for me, either very real possibilities at this point, I’d probably look into part-time options elsewhere.

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  81. Kizzie, I’m sorry it has been a hard day for you. So much of your life has changed, and he’s intermingled in so much of it. I told my sister when her husband died that tearing “one flesh” in half cannot help but be painful!

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  82. I hope that all works out well for you, Kizzie. I know it will be a big load off you to have probate finished.

    Michelle, We had students lose a few weeks of school due to a teacher’s strike. Needless to say, that did not go over big with those who were seniors. I think it was worked out in the end, however. Hopefully, those students will also be accommodated in some way.

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  84. Kizzie, you’re on my heart and in my prayers. I’m sorry for your hard day yesterday. Probate was difficult for my sister, too, when she was widowed years ago. Praying as you walk through the process.

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