86 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-31-17”

  1. Good morning! I miss y’all! Thanks for all who’ve been praying for Kenya and our new puppy, Dakota. I’ll update Dakota’s status on the prayer thread shortly.

    It’s Ann–almost forgot I’m anonymous on my cell.

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  4. Yep. He’s sneaky. He had a sparrow cornered underneath it. Cars drove by 3 feet from the hawk, he never moved. He did eventually get down to hunt for the bird. There were feathers flying and wings flapping, but the sparrow got away. 🙂

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  6. When I’m sitting here with nothing at all to do, sometimes my brain begins cogitating on the weirdest things.
    Have you ever wondered what part of a chicken egg becomes a beak, or feathers?
    Is it the same part every time for each chick?
    At what time does an egg become a chicken?
    I have wondered that about a baby also.
    I am opposed to abortion.
    But I have no objection for a woman getting a D&C after she is raped. It is not a baby.
    I don’t know when it happens, but not yet.

    See what happens when you all sleep in? 😉

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  8. Good Morning Everyone. Tonight is All Hallowed Eve which got shortened to Halloween. Tomorrow on the Liturgical Calendar is All Saints Day. It is a day set aside for remembering those who have gone before us and our loved ones no longer here. Often we read the names of the church members who have died in the last year to speak their names and remember them.
    Halloween is tricky (no pun intended). It used to be an innocent observance. Today it has been taken over and I truly do believe it is evil.

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  12. I’ll skip handing out candy tonight, though i do enjoy doing that (and I finally have some decent lights on the front of the house). But I don’t get home now until well after dark so everything’s in mid-stream by then, kids running everywhere.

    There’s also a big game tonight that I’ll plan to watch. 🙂 Could end sadly, however.

    Looks like the guys made some more good progress yesterday, some of the wood planks are up covering parts of the big hole in the house (we’ll have to re-stucco over everything at the end).

    One of our new young part-timers who’s doing calendar listings for us asked if we dress up in the office for Halloween. Cop reporter tells him, “No, but go ahead if you want, we’ll send you out to interview the grieving family of their murdered loved one.”

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  13. I feel like I’m finally within “striking distance” of finishing this house (though painting may have to hold until next year, not sure yet). With the foundation due to finish up probably in a week, maybe sooner, and the windows to get fixed on Nov. 9, a one-day job (still need to negotiate with the boss to work from home that day), the major infrastructure repairs and replacements will have all been done.

    (This also assumes that the source of the leak under the kitchen sink isn’t something dastardly sinister lurking behind a wall somewhere, please no!).

    Next year will be recovery. Mentally, physically and psychologically.

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  14. For many, Donna. You’ve fought a good fight and the finish line is in sight! Don’t drop the baton!

    Yet another busy day. I’ve hired a publicist to help with Mrs. OC and I now have homework. I have to squeeze it in between teaching Bible study getting a massage (!!!!!), figuring out a costume and attending Trunk and Treat. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have time to think.

    I think I’ve said that before.

    Yesterday at work we could hardly keep on the subjects of our staff meeting. We kept circling back to the fire, affects of the fire, what happened to our friends, when will the roads open, why was my house saved, do I need to go broke buying things for my friends who lost everything and so forth.

    Exhausting. And then I had homework.

    One of my friends who was burned out returned home to sift this weekend. To her surprise, the raspberry bushes she’s had forever had new growth. That was very encouraging to her.

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  15. Chas, the chicken egg yolk is a single cell, and it only begins cell division after fertilization. My parents had chickens for many years, and occasionally we had a rooster among the chickens. We never let the hens sit on their eggs, so we never had the unpleasant experience of opening a half developed chick (my mother did, though, on a trip to England), but we could always tell if the egg had been fertilized because there would be a small white circle in the yoke, called the germinal disc. We did hatch chick eggs, however, in an incubator – I remember doing that one year for a science project, and listening eagerly top the tap-tap of the chicks cracking their shells. If you have ever examined the inside of an egg shell, you know that there appears to be an air pocket in one end – the chick breaks the membrane of that pocket and breathes the air while breaking the shell.

    The embryonic development of a fertilized human ovum (egg) begins immediately after fertilization. By day two it has already divided twice and is beginning to differentiate. By day 5, it is becoming a blastocyst, which has an outer layer of cells that will become the placenta, and a cluster of inner cells that becomes the developing embryo. Implantation occurs by day 6. While an immediate application of spermicide after a rape could prevent fertilization from occurring (since it can take 2 to 10 hours for sperm to reach the ovum), a D&C, which scrapes away the uterine lining, works by either preventing implantation of the developing embryo or, if it is more than six days, to remove the implanted embryo from the uterus. Basically, once the ovum is fertilized, it begins to act as a different organism than the mother, protecting itself from all outside threats including the mother’s own defenses. It is a marvelous thing, the beginning of human life, which is why God becomes so angry at those who use the act that leads to new life for the purpose of hurting and humiliating women – we often forget the wrath of God, but it is there, not against the innocent child, but against the guilty father.

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  16. There is a reason we have the story of the phoenix rising from the flames.
    It is hard to look at total devastation and know where to start. I often find myself playing the role of the optimist when deep down I know I am really a pessimist, but I have to believe that as long as there is breath, there is hope. Your community is lucky to have you.

    Costume? Well, you shall go as Mrs. Oswald Chambers of course!

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  17. Yay for raspberries!

    The very small church that dissolved Sunday night has been united with my church has been sponsoring a fall festival at a close by county park for several years. That happens tonight. I would help (I did donate candy) except I have to prepare for our WMU meeting tomorrow. They expect many to attend since Saturday events got cancelled due to rain.

    We are losing another couple because of the church upheaval. The lady who has been hosting my ladies’ Bible study and her husband will no longer be there. The husband was chairman of the pastor search committee. I am sad about our Bible study group, but someone else may decide to facilitate so we can continue. They are newer members and they probably have more reservations about merging with the bigger church that many others in the church seem excited about. They do not want to be divisive. I understand. We are in a challenging place right now.

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  18. A publicist, how cool is that? 🙂 So are most people planning to rebuild where their old houses were or ? I suppose there are all kinds of alternatives people will have to weigh, depending on finances and other issues. How devastating. 😦

    Real Estate Guy says we have a new plan for the foundation concrete. Not sure what that means, but he’s heading over in a while and maybe can explain it to me. 🙂 Just so it’s cheaper, I keep thinking …

    With the foundation workers under my house and the gardeners next door, my dogs are in a tizzy this morning. So much going on.

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  19. PJhos @ 10:38 Thanks for the lesson. I knew the egg had to be fertilized, but I didn’t know what happened. The egg doesn’t become a chick until the hen sits on it?

    Kim, it sounds like a good tradition. Mostly Baptists let it pass by.
    Bringing to remembrance is good. We need more of that.

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  20. Janice, I will be leaving South Alabama Sunday about noonish. We will be meandering our way through Atlanta and North Georgia Sunday and Monday. Tuesday we will head into the Carolinas. I have to be at a meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. We have a cabin from Tuesday through Saturday.
    Chas, it looks like Tuesday or Friday is your day. Friday may be best. Janice?

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  21. I remember when St Helens went off and they said there would be nothing for years and first time they checked, there was greenery, and then the elk came back. New beginnings. Though the transition was painful.

    Does anybody remember the picture of the petri dish cells that went around recently? They lit up as life began in them. Incredible. And they could even tell which would be weaker due to the weaker light. I thought of it as the touch of God bringing them into being as He prepared to knit them together in their mother’s wombs.

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  22. Chicken eggs, the eggs don’t start working until the hen has a batch, laying one daily, it might be two or three weeks. Otherwise, they would all hatch out on different days. Hens leave the nest with the chicks within about a day of the first hatching, the rest would all be abandoned. But she takes them off to teach them to eat, so if she stayed, the older ones would all starve. God is absolutely amazing in His creativity.

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  23. Yes, the regeneration after a fire has always amazed me. How quickly things turn green and the fireweed we have up here is absolutely beautiful. The dead tree stumps are unsightly for quite a while, but eventually the new growth covers them. The ash from the fires fertilize the earth and all things become new.

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  24. Chas, what Mumsee said. Development of the chicken egg only happens at a certain temperature (I forget what we had to keep the incubator at), otherwise the fertilized egg stays dormant. Eggs that are not washed (washing removes a protective layer) or cracked can keep at room temperature for weeks (I know, from keeping eggs in West Africa on the counter – I still used a few after a month, only washing them just before I used them) so that is why the hen can take a few weeks to get a whole batch before sitting on them. My mother used to keep an eye out for what we called ‘broody’ hens, as they would find an obscure corner to lay their setting of eggs.

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  26. We would occasionally, in our forest walks, come across an old burnt stump. They looked quite picturesque amid the green of the forest. If there is enough water after a fire, it is as if the plant life is renewed tenfold to what it was before.

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  28. Kare, thanks for the encouragement, I got a couple of those cherry trees transplanted yesterday, maybe get a couple of more today. The leaves have changed and are dropping but the ground has not frozen solid yet.

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  30. Morning! I am living in an Ansel Adams world this day!! Everything is black and white and the fog is so thick you could cut it with a knife! The pines are flocked with icy crystals and the roads are coated with snow on top of the ice!
    Tomorrow will be November..how did that happen already???!!! 🦃

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  31. Some birds start sitting on eggs immediately with laying the first egg–great blue heron is one that comes to mind. Other eggs are laid every day or two until the clutch is complete, but the first ones to be laid (and incubated) hatch first, and those older and bigger young have a huge advantage over their younger siblings. In a heron nest, unless the season has a lot of food, it is very common that only the largest survives–in some species (including herons) the older one sometimes even pushes the younger ones out of the nest. And then the parents won’t feed a chick that isn’t in the nest. It’s pretty brutal, really. But in a good year with lots and lots of food, the oldest one gets sated and allows the younger one(s) to be fed, too, and so the parents raise more young that year. If something happens to the first chick or if there is enough food to feed two or three, they have backup young, but they are able to raise one good healthy chick in the bad years since the biggest, loudest one is the only one fed.

    Most songbirds and all precocial birds (birds like chickens, quail, or killdeer that are born with down, with their eyes open, ready to run and find their own food, as opposed to altricial birs that are born blind, naked, and helpless) wait to begin brooding until all the eggs have been laid, so all the eggs hatch within minutes or hours. Some bird species, I forget which one, the young begin cheeping to each other before they exit the egg, and there is speculation they are using their vocalization to time their exits for the same time.

    Cowbirds hatch quicker than other songbirds, and their eggs are laid in the nests of species smaller than they are, so they have a big advantage in getting the most food. Thus their stepsiblings, the real children of the nest, often starve.

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  34. This city boy is getting an education. 😉

    Kim, the schedule is up to you. I will get with you a little later this week to work out a schedule. As I said, We are always here, it’s your schedule that matters.
    You mentioned relaxing and looking out onto Lake Lure.
    It won’t be the same as looking onto Mobile Bay.
    This is NC in November

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  35. Heavy, black clouds low over the harbor this morning and a smattering of rain in the region, with more to come this weekend.

    So foundation is done except for pouring concrete. We need 2.5 cubic yards and workers and Real Estate Guy (whose training is as an engineer) have decided we won’t need to rent a pump or big mixer, it can be done by hand. So more control and (I think) less expense.

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  36. In a perfect world in which I had way more money than I ever will, we would have bolted the entire foundation of the house to make it more earthquake-safe.

    As it is, we will have the front northeast corner of the house securely bolted, at least. So when the Big One hits, I’ll know to run for that side of the house.

    (Then again, this house has survived some pretty big earthquakes in its nearly 100 year history, and it’s still standing.)

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  37. Remembering when they put the foundation under parts of this house. The truck remained in the driveway and a bunch of guys with wheelbarrows scurried around with loads of concrete to pour in. Quite the spectacle and I really appreciated their work. Next time we did foundation work, the guy in charge (my brother) said of course we can bring the truck around and they did and I got to move the lever to pour the cement. That is the sum total of my heavy equipment experience other than driving my dad’s caterpillar around up in the woods when I was little.

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  39. Is it that difficult to bolt the house to the foundation? I remember my brother asking my husband to do it for him.

    That’s when he discovered his entire two story house was sitting on blocks. My engineer refused to touch it.

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  43. I believe the one seismic company quoted me $5,000 just to bolt. After all the money I’ve had to spend on new sewer lines, bathroom, and still-to-come foundation & windows & painting, probably not real doable. I suppose we can ask these guys what they’d charge, but …. Later.

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  44. The good news is, I may actually qualify for low-income homeowner help, esp after I retire (but pretty close to qualifying now, too!).

    Don’t buy a house if you go into journalism. 🙂

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  45. Donna, Luther was not cute.
    I took a course about Luther and the reformation circa 1962 at Southwestern Seminary. We read Roland Bainton’s “Here I Stand” and another biography by a Catholic author..
    I mentioned before, I think. I remember a quiz question:
    “Was Queen Elizabeth a protestant or catholic?”
    I don’t remember what I said then, but now I would say, “neither” she was a politician.

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  46. Roscuro here. Just wanted to add to Mumsee’s 11:40 that the light burst when an egg is fertilized comes from a shower of zinc sparks that are emitted when the DNA of mother and father meet. It happens in both animal and human cells. Each new life is greeted with its own fireworks show.

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  47. DJ, you’re right, I meant 1933. Forgot to proofread. As Peter said yesterday, since this isn’t going out to students, you won’t mind.

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  50. Or maybe the bolting would be less expensive if it is done with the foundation, as in, the wet concrete has bolts in inserted at the time of pouring.

    Brother put roof clips on the roof to keep it from blowing off as per code but the inspector made him take them off as per local code. We get high winds but apparently they want the roof to go but the house to stay, I don’t know.

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  51. The egg, yes, it is a reaction but it is pretty amazing that that was included in the design. Unless of course it all evolved in which case, it is just another thing.

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  53. I also had an article published in Revivalist Magazine today: https://www.gbs.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Gods-Revivalist-2017-NOV-web.pdf

    Biddy and OC were fans of missionaries . . .

    Interesting about the bolts. This was a long time ago and I don’t remember the details, only my husband shaking his head and wondering what my brother was thinking! (A not uncommon reaction to a man who, frankly, has only marginally better tool skills than I do).

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  54. According to your article, my house needs to be bolted, too. I wonder if Mr. Engineer knows that . . .

    I’m rewarding myself for these weeks with a massage this afternoon. I may need to figure out my costume for trunk and treat at church first. I really would prefer to stay home and do nothing.

    Too bad!

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  55. Portrait of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder, who was a personal friend of Luther. He was godfather to Luther’s children. So, if you want to know how Luther really looked, this is as close as it gets.

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  57. I was looking for the zinc spark pictures and after finding them I found an amazing animation video of human creation. The music adds a lot to a beautiful fifteen minutes of amazement. It is called The Miracle of Human Creation by king james pk. Worth a look if you like that sort of thing. I would put the link but who knows what might happen.

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  66. dj, all your posts about your house, reminds me of when we built ours. We had the basement and shell put up and did all the rest ourselves. We lived in the unfinished basement for two years, while we worked on the rest. We lived for several weeks with no running water. Would not want to do it again, but circumstances made it necessary or we would still be renting.

    Now there is a lot of things that need to be redone or replaced.

    Still, we are so incredibly blessed to have our own home. God taught me so much about patience during that time. Not that I am as patient as I would like to be!

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  67. Halloween is over in Greensboro.
    We had a bunch of goblins. I gave out more candy than I expected, but we had enough.
    In H’ville, we had none for the 15 years we were there.

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  68. We get no trick or treaters in the country. I got a few in Nashville, just a dozen or so. It was mostly retired people. Misten loved Halloween, though, and kids would remember her from the year before and greet her by name. The next night she’d start pacing and looking at the front door, eager for the children to come back again to see her. 🙂

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  70. Our street is hopping, neighbors on either side of me are sitting out on their front porches dishing out the candy. I got home late, as usual, and hadn’t bought candy so I’m bowing out of it this year, watching the game

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  71. We always get a lot of kids in my neighborhood, our area is well integrated with young families, plenty of kids of all ages, along with older folks and empty nesters (whose grandkids come around a lot). and older people. I’m not a big fan of segregated type communities. I grew up in a mixed neighborhood and prefer to live in one now.

    Go Dodgers 🙂

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  74. No trick or treaters in the forest…just sittin’ here watching the game…hoping the Dodgers can hold onto the lead!!
    A gal from my hometown in Ohio asked if anyone remembered saying Kinkle Kinkle instead of trick or treat….I sure do remember that…my Dad said it…we had Kinklers not trick or treaters…no one knows exactly where that came from but it is understood that it is a Hamilton Ohio thing…and a German thing…it is told that it means to give me a donut or bread. I just remember getting candy…and popcorn balls…and apples!

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  84. Well, the Astros still have another chance. It might just be prolonging y’all’s agony . . . these teams are too well-matched for tomorrow’s game not to be historic, and a nail-biter.

    I did tell my husband that I’m not at all impressed with the incivility of the LA crowd, booing the Cuban guy every time he came up to bat because of something he said in the dugout to a teammate that doesn’t seem to have had any offense intended. I told him next thing we know they’ll be showing us footage of guys at the urinal. This idea that “tolerance” includes really stiff punishments plus rudeness to those deemed insufficiently tolerant is really, really old, and it made me want the Dodgers to lose just because a crowd like that didn’t deserve a win.

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  86. And you know why the booing occurred, right? The guy acted like a jerk but was not suspended for World Series games. The idea last night was, “OK, let the crowd have their say” (which is why the pitcher allowed a bit of extra time for the crowd to let their displeasure be known).

    Going to act like a jerk and personally ridicule a fellow player for his race, you out to take a bit of public chastisement. Comes with the territory.

    Then, as soon as the ball hit the mitt, it was play ball time, right back to it.

    I love baseball 🙂

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