92 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-11-17”

  4. Nice picture. Reminds me of our time at West Point. Particularly the summer concerts out on the hill overlooking the Hudson and the firing of the canons for the William Tell Overture. And the many weddings there after graduation.

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  5. It is Remembrance Day here. Yesterday, the college held a Remembrance Day service, which I walked into while going to class. I had some time, so I stayed. They read the two poems that are read every year at Remembrance Day, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s In Flander’s Fields and Laurence Binyon’s For the Fallen. The fourth stanza of Binyon’s poem is often the only one quoted, to the point where it is known as the ‘Ode of Remembrance’:

    They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
    Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
    At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
    We will remember them.

    McCrae’s poem is of special significance to Canadians, although the British also use it every November 11th. McCrae was a Canadian physician and he died before the end of the war: http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/johnmccrae-bio.html

    In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place: and in the sky
    The larks still bravely singing fly
    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the dead: Short days ago,
    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved: and now we lie
    In Flanders fields!

    Take up our quarrel with the foe
    To you, from failing hands, we throw
    The torch: be yours to hold it high
    If ye break faith with us who die,
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
    In Flanders fields

    Poppies are worn both in Britain and in Canada as a sign of remembrance. They are distributed by members of the Royal Canadian Legion or sometimes by young members of the Cadets, generally outside grocery stores – you put a donation in the box and get a poppy lapel pin in exchange. Remembrance Day was originally instituted after WWI, to commemorate the signing of the Armistice on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, and has since been extended to remember the fallen of WWII, the Korean War, and those who fought in smaller conflicts since, particularly Afghanistan. Two minutes of silent observation are held at 11AM during Remembrance Day services.

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  8. I remember five soldiers in my family. – two great grandfathers from WWI, and a grandfather and two great uncles during WWI. The great grandfather on my father’s side was part of the Home Guard, stationed at one of the port fortresses at the mouth of the harbour in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he helped with the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion in 1917 (the hundredth anniversary is in about a month). The great grandfather on my mother’s side ran away and joined the British army, even though he was underage. He was wounded in battle and taken prisoner by the Germans. He told tales of his time in prison camp, of faking epileptic fits in order to sabotage. He didn’t receive proper medical care for his wound, however, as he was in ill health when he was returned to his family after the war. The great uncle on my father’s side was wounded during WWII, but I’m not sure in what battle. The great uncle on my mother’s side (son of the above mentioned great grandfather) was part of the First Special Forces Battalion, the one known as the Devil’s Brigade and was killed at Anzio. My grandfather was involved in the second wave of the liberation of Holland, after the failure depicted in A Bridge too Far, and the grateful Dutch people who hosted him never forgot him, writing letters many years after the war. Then, as the Allies advanced into Germany, he drove an officer whose job it was to see troops did not engage in looting or other criminal acts – it was a dark period of his life, and he didn’t like to talk about it in later years. He died of bone cancer on November 11th nearly 20 years ago.

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  9. In our church, we have a WWII vet. He likes to give presentations at schools on Christianity in the war. How God reached him and others through that time. He was in the landing at Utah Beach and was a mechanic but turned into a medic there on the beach. He still has friends in Belgium. Another one still has friends in England. One really likes talking about that time, the other does talk but not so much. And my old camping buddy, who died several years ago, was at Okinawa and he did not like talking about it at all and was appalled at the levity first guy would put into his talks. Our old church also had a vet but he never talked about it at all. Only way to know was the purple heart designation on his license plate. Everybody held it differently.

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  11. I was looking at some news sites this morning, I don’t look at many. The British are doing a lot of remembrance activities. I saw one article on Pence and wife helping to clean the Vietnam veterans memorial, which I think is a wonderful observance, but sad that I don’t see anything else noted. Let’s pretend that a whole bunch of people did not fight for or die fighting for this nation. Let’s talk about Hollywood instead. Ick.

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  12. We learned the first verse of “Flanders’s field” in elementary school in the 1930’s. The first two lines.
    I”n Flanders’s field, where poppies grow,
    On the crosses, row on row.”
    is all I remembered.
    I don’t think they do that now.
    This used to be called “Armistices Day” long ago.
    Too many wars between now.

    Do you realize that that war is the cause of the chaos we’re having now?
    The break up of the colonies, the Soviet Unison were caused by that.
    Much of it would have happened anyhow, but not this way.

    But not this way.
    And I think it was an accident.
    Der Schliffen Plan was activated and the German armies swept into Belgaum into France.
    It wouldn’t have happened in Bismarck were still in charge.

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  14. The American Legion still hands out the poppies, as I recall. The first time I was handed one, I had no idea what it was for. I thought somebody was panhandling.

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  15. Mumsee & Peter: Technically, it was the college building on the university campus, but they were also going to hold a service at the other college campus. It depends on the college or university, and the campuses in this community tend to allow everything. The college has allowed pro-life protestors, while I’ve seen Christian outreaches going on at the university – I have also seen Muslim and Jewish events being held – but then again, the university was originally a Baptist seminary, and a seminary still stands on the campus, although it is administered separately from the university. There plenty of people who object to the Remembrance Day services from one reason or another, but there is a strong national feeling around honouring Canadian soldiers. When Canadian forces took part in Afghanistan, few people thought anything good would come of the mission, but polls showed they strongly supported the troops, with many putting decals on their vehicles saying “Support our troops”. The fallen soldiers from Afghanistan and more recently, from Iraq where Canadian special forces are embedded with the Kurdish forces (and a Canadian sniper team set longest sniper kill record), when they were brought home were carried along a stretch of highway from the military base at Trenton, Ontario to Toronto, and each time, people lined the bridges over the highway to pay tribute: https://hohtribute.ca/. Ever since the battle of Vimy Ridge in WWI, where Canadian troops succeeded where the British and French failed, Canadians have been quietly proud of their military.

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  16. Thank you, Roscuro, for explaining Remembrance Day and what the poppies mean so well. Being of Mennonite Brethren descent, I do not have any ancestors (that I know of) who are veterans. I believe my husband is the first in the family to even do law enforcement. (How can a pacifist be a police officer and carry a gun?). I understand some of the pacifist point of view, but certainly not all of it. I did have an uncle or two who worked in internment camps because they would not fight. One of them worked in Banff National Park building stuff.

    Sometimes I feel guilty for my family history on Remembrance Day, but mostly I feel so grateful for those who fought and died to save others.

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  17. Chas, the First World War, or the Great War, certainly sowed many of the seeds of future conflict, but I don’t think it was avoidable. Germany had been spoiling for a fight with France, and they pushed Austria into sending Serbia the ultimatum which guaranteed that Russia would declare war, and then Germany pre-emptively declared war on France, guaranteeing England would join in, due to the Triple Entente between France, England, and Russia. Tzarist Russia was already collapsing, with Rasputin being the final straw, and the European powers had been circling like wolves around the ‘Sick Man of Europe’ as the Ottoman Empire was called, waiting for it to collapse and get their hands on its territory ever since Napoleon’s day.

    I’ve been researching how the treaties at the end of that war led to the modern situation in the Middle East, and leaving aside the well known case of Palestine and the future Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the way France and England carved up Syria and what was made Iraq between them after WWI is directly linked to the present day conflict ongoing in that area. France, who got Syria, enhanced the regional division there, alienating Druze and Alawite from Sunni – the current president of Syria is Alawite, while some of the rebel groups are Sunni. Britain forced three distinct Ottoman provinces together into Iraq (they created Iraq) with the Kurds in the north around Mosul, Sunni domination around Baghdad, and Shia domination around Basra in the south. We all know how that’s turned out. King Husain of the Hejaz (the region around Mecca and Medina now in Saudi Arabia) had made an alliance (1915) with Britain in exchange for British support in setting up a united Arab kingdom in the area that is now Iraq and Syria. Britain ostensibly agreed, but also drew up the Sykes-Picot agreement (1916)with France, dividing the Syria and Iraq region into area of French and British ‘influence’. It is impossible to say how history might have turned out, but Hussain and his sons would have had a good chance of uniting the regions, as their descent from Muhammed would have given them legitimacy in the eyes of the Muslim Arabs, while Christian Arabs actively supported the Arab nationalist movement, and Husain encouraged the Arabs in Palestine to welcome Jewish refugees (the British had persuaded him that the Balfour declaration (1917) did not endanger his own vision of Palestine being part of the Arab state). That Husain’s family was of a liberal mindset may be seen in the country ruled by his great grandson, King Abdullah of Jordan, one of the most liberal of the Arab countries.

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  18. Kare, David set the precedent that those who stayed by the stuff would receive an equal share of the spoils. My father’s father didn’t fight in WWII partly because he had flat feet, but also because he was a farmer. The women, the elderly men, and the children, for all the excellent job they did, needed some help from younger men in keeping the supplies going to the troops and the country functional while the war was being fought. Many Canadians gave their lives not fighting, but sailing the merchant ships that brought supplies to Europe – but only recently were the merchant seamen given recognition for their part.

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  19. I have a hard time being pro-military today simply because I think most of today’s uses of the military are inappropriate, interfering in the affairs of other nations. I appreciate those who fought bravely to save the world from Nazism, but today our military has largely become one big political experiment, and I find it hard to be patriotic in the sense that “America did it, it must be right.” I have a much stronger allegiance to the church, much weaker to the country in which I happen to live, as I get older.

    So I have no personal interest in flying the flag on particular holidays (though I will of course stand when the anthem is played and so forth), and I’m fervently opposed to military displays or songs as part of a church service, but it has nothing to do with disrespect for those who gave their lives for our country.

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  20. Speaking of those who kept the supplies open, this year’s installment – commemoration of the continued 100 year anniversary of WWI – of the classical composers who fought in that war:
    The French composer Maurice Ravel was of fragile build, so he was denied active service during the Great War (WWI). Nevertheless, he drove a supply truck with the 13th Artillery Regiment, often with his life in danger as he transported munitions under bombardment. One of the few works he composed during the war was his set of pieces titled ‘Tombeau de Couperin’, each of the pieces dedicated to a friend who died in the war. The Rigaudon was dedicated to the brothers Pierre and Pascal Gaudin, who were killed by the same shell in November 1914.

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  21. Cheryl, Canadians are skeptical of the conflicts our country enters into (most of us were glad we didn’t join in Bush’s scheme of ousting Saddam Hussain), but our skepticism does not extend to the military itself, whom are perceived as simply following orders. The politicians who choose to enter the doubtful conflicts are the ones who are criticized.

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  22. While I may not agree with certain actions taken with our military by the talking heads in Washington, Veteren’s Day is to honor those who make/made the decision to defend us as a nation. I will fly the flag in their honor…those who are on the front lines, losing life and limb in the attempts to protect freedom and life. My Dad served as did husband, uncles, grandparents, cousins, nephews and dear friends…. 🇺🇸

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  23. It’s a messy world.

    I interviewed a vet yesterday, one of the last of 7 brothers who all signed up to serve, most in the 1960s during the Vietnam era. Their mom immigrated from Mexico as a young woman so the children (nine altogether, 1 brother did not enlist and they also had 1 sister) were all born in California.

    I slept until 9 today, I can’t remember when I last managed to do that. It was a story-packed week, especially yesterday, and I was very tired I guess.

    But now I have cleanup to do in the kitchen before the sink guy from the dog park gets here at noon. And I also need to get some cash out of the ATM as that’s how he likes to be paid.

    My house seems a lot quieter since the windows were refitted and weather stripping was added. Everything shuts and locks so snuggly now. Guess it was pretty drafty before.

    Well, the cat is behaving as if she’s being cruelly starved to death so I’d better get her & the dogs fed and get started on that kitchen.

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  25. Wow, that was confusing. DJ interviewed a vet so I am thinking erinarian and she is talking eran. I got it.

    Your house should be better able to withstand the cold and the heat with the new window fitting and insulation in the ceiling. Now you are not going to want to move to Idaho.

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  26. My dad was WWII Navy. So was my uncle (who survived Pearl Harbor). And we had at least one ancestor that I know of who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

    Vietnam muddied the waters significantly for my generation, of course. By the time my class was graduating high school, though, the slow-down in troops being sent over was well underway so I don’t remember anyone I knew actually going to Vietnam. The graduating classes ahead of us, from the mid 1960s, were hit the worst with the draft when it was then in full swing.

    But I worked in the high school office one summer and remember getting letters from the government about this or that student (who were in the years ahead of us) having been killed in the war and requesting that the information be added to the school records still kept on those former students. 😦

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  27. I’m tired. I can’t even remember all the stories I did this past week. Many were held for the weekend so they’re getting dumped in the paper and online all at once.

    Mumsee, I believe it was that backyard slaughterhouse discussion that gave me serious 2nd thoughts … 🙂

    It would be good if I could find a way to keep my house cooler during those heat spikes we get (as A/C won’t be affordable after all of this, for sure). Maybe the tighter windows will help — and maybe better window coverings that might be solar-heat-resistant? My windows are so numerous and huge that I think a lot of heat bakes right through them, especially the south-facing ones (though we also get the best breezes from that direction typically).

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  28. My family has a lot of military service, but I can’t think of any in combat. My grandfather tried to join up when the U.S entered WWI, but he was only 16 and they caught him lying about his age. He turned 18 two weeks after the armistice was signed. He had a 35 year army career but by the time of WWII he was a cavalry instructor. He never saw the front lines.

    My dad was way too young for WWII and ended up classified 4-F anyway.

    A branch of my father’s family has a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses. At least one of them did prison time in WWII because he was a conscientious objector. My dad always respected someone with such a stand if they were willing to take the consequences instead of running away.

    My brother and sister both served in the 80’s, my sister as an Army soldier stationed in Germany and my brother an Air Force officer working in satellite surveillance programs in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

    My wife’s family, being a little ahead of mine in age, did serve in WWII. Her father was in the navy but never saw combat. Her uncle was shot down and spent some time in a German prison camp. Meanwhile her mother, grandmother, and aunt were all working at the Willow Run bomber plant making B-24s.

    We think about all these people on Veterans Day

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  29. Kevin, my maternal grandmother (her older brother was the one killed in WWII) worked in a munitions factory, as did her younger brother. He became a highly skilled machinist, later working on ambitious post-war projects like the Avro Arrow, while she got married to my grandfather (the one who helped liberate the Netherlands and then drove the army officer) and had two children during the war – we have a letter she wrote to her husband in Europe as she was going into labour for her second – and four more after the war, including my mother. My maternal grandfather was delayed from seeing action – he would have been in a tank corps and have landed with the other Canadian divisions on the Juno beachhead in Normandy during the Allied invasion, had not his brother-in-law, who was a farmer, become seriously ill and was hospitalized, necessitating my grandfather getting leave to work the farm until his brother-in-law recovered.

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  30. You are correct, DJ, that was probably a stark reminder to folks that not everybody does it humanely. Some do love and care for, even baby, their animals and then give them a quick nearly painless death before making them into dinner. Others send them to the butcher, where the animal may wait for a while with strange scents and sounds after a trailer ride until their time is up. Most take the long road to the slaughterhouse and all that entails, to make tasty burgers at McDonald’s or Wendy’s or wherever, or that nicely wrapped piece of meat in the cooler at the grocery store.

    But I would say the vast majority of Idahoans get their meat from the grocery store. Only a few thousand probably get theirs from roadkill and the rest are somewhere in between and a combination thereof.

    As to the windows, we have a marked difference when the sun blocking drapes are drawn. Both in the summer and in the winter. We have lots of and large windows facing south on our nice heat reflecting deck.

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  31. Good morning. Today is my sister’s birthday. She retired from the nave 14 years ago. My grandfather was in WWI, but did not go overseas, as his company caught the Spanish flu. Everyone that did not die, was discharged. All of my uncles on Daddy’s side served in the army. One died in Korea, 2 weeks before he was to be discharged. My grandparents received a letter from him, following the funeral, with all of his plans and dreams to accomplish when he got home. Heartbreaking. Both my brother and sister served in the navy. My SIL is a captain in the NM national guard, and works for them full time, overseeing logistics. I am proud and thankful for all of them, and for the service of all military and support folks.

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  33. And I knew quite a few conscientious objectors from WWII when I was moving in Quaker circles when I was a young believer. Most did stateside work as the alternative, fixing roads, etc., and the ones I knew did it gladly, they were strong in their belief that they could not bear arms. I had an uncle (Catholic) who also refused to carry arms in WWII (Army) and he became (and served as) a medic in Europe, getting shot reportedly once in the behind.

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  34. My windows also have that thin wavy antique glass in them, amazing they’ve survived as long as they have.

    When the guy comes Tuesday to discuss the 2 replacements — which are on the south side toward the front (east) side of the house and probably most prone to baking when it’s hot), I may discuss glass options with him. But yes, I think it will be worth it also to invest in some heat-blocking shades or other window coverings on at least some of those windows.

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  36. I am home now from working in the media center with a family I am blessed to join with in this project. We seem to be like-minded about many things.Glad my father served in the military. He did not do combat.

    As an on-going project, our WMU plans to gather supplies to give to Vets in the nursing home

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  39. What is your definition of city? I used to live in Caldwell. It is the reason I think of that as the other Idaho. If you watched the second one, the one where the guy falls out of the raft into the river, my home is in the upper right at the very beginning, on the prairie.

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  42. It’s me jumping in again. (I’ve been keeping up on the prayer thread, & caught up with the news thread as of last night, but not today, but am still a couple days behind here.)

    Just wanted to let you know that after much thought & number-crunching, Nightingale & I have decided to not pay off the home loan & then struggle too tightly for the next three years. We’ve decided to use the insurance money to pay off any other debts (which don’t amount to too much, thankfully), & keep paying the home loan each month. We will then have the bulk of the insurance money to supplement her income with a set amount each month, & the rest will be available for emergencies. When I start collecting Social Security, we will pay off as much of the remaining loan as we can wisely do at the time with whatever may be left. Our plan is to make sure that if something happens to me, she will be able to pay off the home loan.

    The set amount I referred to will be like a monthly allowance, so that we don’t end up blowing though it too quickly. (Then again, both Nightingale & I are pretty frugal, & neither of us are spendthrifts.)
    _________________

    With all that has been going on, I had set aside Mrs. Oswald Chambers for a bit, but came back to the book recently, & got to the part where Oswald died. That was painful to read. I can’t help but think, though, that I am reading this book at this time for a purpose, in God’s timing. Reading that part right after Hubby’s death would probably have been too painful, & I may not have been able to absorb the rest of the book, & how Biddy dealt with her own beloved’s death.
    __________________

    Janie & Heidi, who play vigorously but “normally” for dogs, got into an actual fight yesterday afternoon, right after Nightingale left for work. Chickadee & I each tried to grab a hold of their collars to separate them (& we did), but in the process, my forearm got mistaken by Janie for Heidi’s neck. (IOW, she didn’t mean to bite me.)

    After separating the dogs, we went into the bathroom to check out my arm. Janie had gotten the fleshier part of the forearm, & one tooth managed to sink in a bit on the top side, with only one tiny pinprick on the bottom side, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. But both sides of the arm are painfully bruised. Nightingale checked it out today, & said it looks fine, no sign of infection. Just very sore.

    Dumb dogs. I think what caused the fight was that they were both waiting for The Boy to drop some of his snack. A similar thing has happened a couple other times, so we’ve finally figured out to put the dogs elsewhere when anyone is eating. We usually do that for meals anyway, but now should do that for snacks, too.

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  44. Oh, Kizzie, so sorry about the dog fight. I had 2 females for a while who just went at it something awful and I had my share of bites trying to break them up, too. One left a scar that I can still see on my left arm. Those bites are painful and I wound up going to the doctor for at least that one, as I recall.

    Food is a big driver, so hopefully that was all that sparked it. Keep an eye on them, feed them separately. Now that they’ve gotten into it once, it could happen again.

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  45. The recommend pulling up on the back legs (like a wheel barrow) as one way to safely break up a dog fight, but that’s tricky to do, especially with all the chaos. Going for the collars or getting anywhere near their heads definitely puts you in harm’s way.

    I also tried banging pots and pans, but that didn’t work for my 2 anyway (I eventually had to have the one female put down, unfortunately). Two females, according to my vet, are usually the worst combination of dogs (potentially) when it comes to fights. Males usually make more noise than damage and it ends quickly. Females, he said, will fight to the death.

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  46. Yikes!

    I’ve also heard of dousing them with water.

    So far, except for the “food fights”, they’ve gotten along pretty well, playing vigorously, but definitely only playing. We’ll keep an eye on them as Janie grows, & hopefully they’ll still get along.

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  47. RKessler, thanks for the recommendation. I like to get as close as I can to the original people who take part in events, so one of the books I’m reading is The Arab Awakening by George Antonius (there is another book with the same name by a different author). The book was first published in 1939. Antonius was of Christian Lebanese and Egyptian descent, a junior administer in the British Mandate in Palestine until he resigned to work in the The Institute of Current Affairs in New York. He personally interviewed many of the key players in the events, including King Husain and his son Faisal*, and translated into English many of the papers that were key in the negotiations. He was very even handed in dealing with the Zionists, and refused to credit the conspiracy theories (theories that are still circulating) surrounding why the Western powers supported the Zionist movement, saying that he found no evidence of them.

    *Prince Faisal was not at all how he is portrayed in the film Lawrence of Arabia. Faisal was not the Machiavellian negotiator fluent in English that Alec Guinness played in the film, and he – rather than Lawrence, who was a very minor figure in reality – was the victor of the Arab Revolt who was outmaneuvered by the French and British. Faisal’s government in Syria failed because the French forced him out, not because of any incompetence on the part of the Arabs for government – Faisal’s Syrian assembly was sophisticated and modern enough to have a debate on whether to give the vote to women, a transcript of which was one of the primary documents I’ve read for class – in 1920, they were in advance of many Western nations in considering the matter. Faisal was later installed by the British to the Iraqi throne, which he ruled well, but he died too soon of a heart attack, and his son died at an even younger age in a car accident. His brother Abdullah, who was given the kingdom of Jordan, did establish a dynasty, despite his own assassination.

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  49. And where are all your helicopters?

    We had 4 overhead in our neighborhood last night as a car chase ended nearby. I was at work and watched it on the local TV news from the newsroom, but my neighbor called me about it.

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  50. Well, it appears I’ve been stood up by the sink repair guy from the dog park. He’s very good about texting if he’s going to be late or has to cancel so since I never heard from him I presume he simply forgot.

    Not a big deal, we can either reschedule or Real Estate Guy also has a handyman he can refer me to if the dog park friend decides he can’t or doesn’t want to do it (he’s been having back issues lately).

    So I went grocery shopping & now I have a 4 p.m. appt to get my hair cut.

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  51. Helicopters? Of course. We have medivac service and the fires have helicopters drop water from the Clearwater on them. We did have one crash in Kamiah a few years ago. I think it was Fish and Game and one of the riders did not secure a clipboard. It went out the window and hit the rotor. They were all killed as I recall. Sad time.

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  53. There haven’t been many in combat in my family. My dad was in the Navy in WWII and saw some action. His ship got to Okinawa on the second day. My uncle (dad’s brother) joined the Navy also but I don’t know if he saw combat. My other uncle on mom’s side was in Germany in the Cold War era. My BIL was a radio man in Vietnam. A cousin was a Navy chaplain in the 90s. A nephew was in Afghanistan. Other than that, we haven’t had any in the military.

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  54. Kizzie, Misten quickly grew tall enough that by the time she was eight or ten months old she could rest her head on the table, look me in the eye, and hope I’d give her something. I’m strongly opposed to feeding dogs from the table, and to them begging for food. (If something drops, the dog is welcome to eat it.) Of course, with a child around you may get more food falling, anyway.

    But I was not willing to have her pleading with me for food, even just with her eyes, so I began making her lie down when I ate. If she wouldn’t stay down or she insisted on looking at me pleadingly, I put her outside. Eventually she learned the household rule–she was to ignore me when I ate, no eye contact, and then she could stay inside and she wouldn’t be forced to stay on “down.”

    You don’t have the same issues, but I wonder if putting them in their crates or making them lie down during meals might not have the same effect? Or have one outside and the other one lying down? And maybe you can either feed them just before you eat (so that they aren’t hungry) or just afterward (so that their patience is rewarded and they will know they get to eat soon.

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  55. I have at least one branch of the family (one brother of my mother, and his children) that is military, one of my brothers was in the Army (though Vietnam ended before he could go over, and he had a stateside injury), and one of my nephews is in the military. So we have military here and there, but none up close and personal to me. My grandparents all died before I was born and I don’t know my dad’s side of the family at all (all my aunts and uncles are dead now anyway, except the military uncle’s wife and my mom’s other brother), so I have no idea whether there is or was military service anywhere else.

    I do know that the members of the military don’t have a lot of choice about what they do–which is why I wouldn’t want to have any of my kids serve in the military even if I had boys. I wasn’t meaning to “blame” members of today’s military, but neither do I automatically see them as heroes. I am glad for the genuine heroism that has been part of our military tradition, but I hate what has become of our military today.

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  56. I had two sons in the Air Force, one got out, one is still in. Both went to the Middle East for a time or two. I now have one son in the Navy and a daughter headed into the Navy in about a month. Husband was in from the end of the Vietnam War (when he was stationed in the Mediterranean) and the Gulf War (when he was stationed on Okinawa) and then a few more years.

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  57. Cheryl – During meals, we usually have Heidi behind the gate in my bedroom (it’s a wooden swinging gate that we installed when The Boy was a baby), & Janie in her crate. Or sometimes we put both dogs out on the porch.

    Funny thing about that gate. The trick to open it is to squeeze the button from both sides, & push down at the same time. The Boy figured that out at only two years old. 🙂

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  58. My dad was in the Air Force, stationed in Korea toward the end of the Korean War. His dad, born in Germany but a naturalized American citizen, wanted to fight against the Nazis but was deemed too old to join up.

    I can’t remember if my maternal grandfather was in the service, but I know a great uncle of mine died in World War II. My uncle (Mom’s brother) served in both the Army & the Navy (one after the other, of course), & one of his sons was in the Navy.

    Hubby was in the Air Force, with his service overlapping the Vietnam War by a couple years, but he was stationed elsewhere. He was in the Air Force Reserves for several years after that. His mother was a lady Marine during World War II, & his father fought in that war, with the Army, I think. (When Hubby was born in 1955, his mother was 34 & his father was 37, considered old for first-time parents.)

    We have a knife with a swastika on the handle, that FIL took off a dead German soldier.

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  59. Cheryl – You wrote something that I have thought. So many people act as if any service member is automatically a hero, but that isn’t necessarily true. And as much as we would not like to admit it, some of our troops have done some very bad things in the lands they’ve been sent to.

    That being said, I am thankful for those who are willing to join up & possible lay their lives on the line for our country, if that is indeed their motivation.

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  60. I’ve said before:
    Joining the AF was one of the smart things I did in life.
    Getting out to go to college was the second smart thing I did.
    The rest was sheer luck, or destiny.
    I suspect destiny.

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  61. My dad was on the USS Chicago in the Pacific during WWII, he never talked about it much and I don’t think he saw much “action,” as it were, but I may be wrong. I do have his military records from the government, one of these days I’ll get back to looking those over to see where he was and when. Shortly after he went in, he was part of the cleanup crew at Pearl Harbor, I do remember him talking about all the oil and horrible smell it left everywhere.

    My uncle was on the Nevada when it went down at Pearl Harbor, but he miraculously learned to swim that day and survived. 🙂

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  62. Dogs also compete for attention. The dog fights that occurred in my house with previous dogs happened when I was there, not typically (at least no evidence of it) when I was gone.

    I always feed Cowboy and Tess in different rooms, but within just a couple feet of each other and the door open as they’ve never fought. But I don’t want to tempt fate.

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  63. We feed the dogs in their pen a couple of feet from each other. They have it worked out. We used to feed them on the front porch until they started self feeding chickens.

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  64. Husband had an ancestor that was in the Civil War. He walked from Wisconsin to Tennessee or some such as a Private. He then walked on down to Georgia and then back to Wisconsin. Still a Private.

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  65. Misten and I went for Thanksgiving two or three times to the house of friends who had two dogs, who also hosted another lady and her dog. At the end of the human meal, each dog got a bowl of scraps approved by its owner (for Misten no ham, for instance). The bowls were all put down at the same time so that no dog got a head start. I thought there might be some fighting, but in fact each dog saw it as a very important race–gobble quickly so I don’t have to share. Misten was usually a fairly laid-back, philosophical diner. But those afternoons she ate wolfishly, as though her life depended on it. All four big dogs always finished about the same time and none ever had to share.

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  67. Still sick. Ugh.
    When I️ met Janice she gifted me with a cookbook from St Simons Island. Last night I️ finally had a chance to look through it. I️ sound a recipe I️ have been searching for since 1989!!!!!! It is for refrigerator slaw that can be served warm or cold. I️ had it warm with salmon croquettes. Now the only problem is Mr P doesn’t eat them. Oh well, he can have something else that day.

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  68. Nope, Misten was definitely Scottish. But pork products aren’t supposed to be good for dogs, and so I never gave her any. Just once on Thanksgiving might not have hurt her, except there was plenty of other stuff to give her–and also, I don’t know if other dogs operate like this, but Misten had a mental checklist of which foods I shared and which I didn’t. Since I did give her carrots (until I realized she invariably threw them back up), she would come into the kitchen and be underfoot while I cut up carrots, for instance, but she ignored me while I cut up squash until I started giving her some of the squash peelings. So it was nice to be able to chop up a ham without her waiting around for her piece, and I didn’t particularly need that to change.

    I have friends whose dog understands the words “oops” in the kitchen and goes running if she hears it. 🙂 Yay, she dropped something for me!

    Misten wasn’t a huge pest while I cooked, although occasionally I did send her out of the kitchen if I needed to move around quickly. But if the meal I was preparing included stuff I gave her, she pretty much stayed in the kitchen. I’m sure she was just making sure her help was convenient and she would not bother me by making me have to go get her for any scraps of cheese or hamburger or green beans that might need to be cleaned up, or any broccoli I might give her on purpose. She was thoughtful that way.

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  69. Just quickly scanning before an insane day to God’s glory.

    No worries, Karen, I did consider warning you about OC’s death in light of Leon’s. Wise decision to wait and no worries.

    A military member in every war since the French and Indian War (Henry Arthur Dial died in a skirmish, the only death) except WWII, for my family–and since my father -in-law served in that, my kids’ line goes all the way back. Vietnam was a cousin’s husband–and that ended tragically with drug addiction. 😦

    My husband is the first to make the military a (first) career.

    I have lots of thoughts on all of the above but no time. Guests are stirring (one may be out jugging with Mr. Fit) and I still need to print some photos for my talks today.

    I’ll be happier when events in my life are better spaced out starting . . . Wednesday?

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  74. The gathering of believers was wonderful this morning, we worshiped God together and there is a sense of unity among the believers. God wants unity for us. He says so.

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  76. Good afternoon. We had a nice Thanksgiving luncheon after church. It was my third big luncheon in a week. I can now do comparisons od green beans and dressings.

    I am thrilled Kim found that recipe! I wanted to give her something and looked for my Taste of Georgia cookbook but could not find it. Then I saw the other and thought with its coastal Georgia recipes and lovely historical drawings that she would like that even more. God knew she needed that recipe! And I have just a few of the pecans left that Kim gave me that she and a friend had toasted, seasoned, and nicely presented in cellophane gift bags tied with ribbons.

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  77. Here is a new one for me. I have been telling small folk they need to put their school books away when they are done. I said: if school books are out, it means you want to do schoolwork. Two small folk came charging over. One picked up her books and put them away. The other picked up his books and set them in the toy box. I said, that is not away. He then put them on the floor next to the dining room table. Not on the school desk. I told him to do a math sheet. He told me that he thinks schoolwork is Satan’s design because he did not want us to spend time with God.

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  78. Our service was very nice. There was a short recognition of the veterans who are quickly dwindling in our congregation. Since we are just a few blocks from the VA Hospital, this may be a way to reach some in our community that have felt left out by the typical church offerings. Although the veterans are recognized, it does not take away from worship of God. Our services got extended by fifteen minutes several years ago so there is time for a few add-ons to the service.

    The new worship leaders are doing a wonderful job. I really like the sermons of our interim pastor. He has started a series on Jesus and how He addressed Himself with the “I am” labels such as the one he did today, “I am the Bread of Life.”

    There will be an important meeting between the two church leadership groups tomorrow night to decide if we should go forward toward a vote on merger. There is a whole lot to consider. I think the other group has to commit to become Southern Baptist. Also, I just heard at lunch that there will be discussion about their stance on racial reconciliation and social justice. I am thankful to be a lowly member not on the leadership team. I also heard another couple on the leadership team have left our church. We shall see how it all comes out after being washed in the blood and according to God’s will.

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  79. Oh, Mumsee, I think it is that old Deceiver’s design to keep young minds from learning in their schoolbooks so they won’t be able to fully comprehend all that is in the Bible.

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  81. Michelle had an ancestor in the French and Indian War. So did I. Mine was a German mercenary who fought in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham under General Wolfe. He married an Acadian woman (not all the Acadians were deported to Louisiana) and settled in Nova Scotia, on land granted to him in payment for his service.

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  83. Good service at our church as well this morning.

    I’m amazed at how QUIET my house is with all this weather stripping in and with the windows now actually fitting into their frames without all the gaps when they’re closed. Neighbor whose driveway is right outside the large pair of windows on my south living room wall just backed out a little while ago and I couldn’t hear anything. Amazing. I don’t think I realized how much outside noise I had in here before.

    I’m doing some laundry, waiting to hear if Carol still wants to go to the tree lighting tonight. I figured it might be good for me to do something like that, in spite of all the effort to get there, pick her up, go through what will be a security check at the gates of the event, etc.

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  84. Oh, DJ that just seems like too much work. Of course I am facing a busy week.
    I will leave home between 6:30 and 7 tomorrow morning and won’t be home until at least 9:30. Tuesday, I will go in later but still be late getting home. Wednesday I will leave earlier and come home earlier. Thursday night we have Vendor Appreciation (Thanksgiving), Friday I have our ALC retreat ….is it Saturday yet?

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  90. Well, we went but missed seeing the tree light up.

    Throngs of people, we wound up in an endless, shoulder-to-shoulder line for about an hour before the authorities told us our line could no longer enter the event, we’d have to go and join yet another line.

    At that point Carol and I decided to head for the parking structure where quite a few people were lined up watching from the 6th level (and others, but that was one one we were on). There was a pretty decent view of the tree below.

    But then the authorities arrived and told us we’d have leave, we could not watch from there, so we found the car, got the parking fee paid and left. The tree looked like it still hadn’t been lighted. I went through a drive-through to buy Carol a dinner she could take home with her (I skipped it, I just wanted to head for home by then).

    Her legs were really hurting by then, too, she really can’t stand or walk for long, but she forgets that quite often.

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