36 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-15-17”

  4. Kim, I just saw on FoxNews that I-4 is the most dangerous highway in America.
    Be careful!

    I’m surprised at that. I would have suspected I-495 or some such.
    Or maybe a hwy around LA where drivers are aggressive.
    In the DC area, everyone is in a hurry.
    When the light turns from green to red, you can expect at least one to run it in the DC area.

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  6. Good Morning! What a beautiful photo up there…but what in the world are they munching on?
    The craziest highway ever driven by me was in Dallas…my head was spinning by the time I got through there…crazy people in cars! 🚗
    I am trying something new this morning with a group of friends…Zumba! This may be a real interesting morning 💃

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  8. I’ll be dancing soon, too!

    Finally, finally, I’ll get a day at home–once I return from dancing–I’m beyond tired and things continue crazy.

    Today is the 100th anniversary of Oswald Chambers’ death. My website numbers are exploding (for me. I’m about to surpass yesterday’s all time high and it’s only 6:30 in the morning here) and I’ve heard from people around the world about the occasion.

    Here’s the blog post I wrote, if you’re interested: http://www.michelleule.com/2017/11/14/oswald-chambers-death-100-years-later/

    My brother came yesterday, he and his wife were the ones who gave us sanctuary at the beach. We drove the fire route together, along with my son. It’s rain lightly enough that the scorched earth is now covered in soft green grass–which does nothing to diminish the horror.

    Very sobering trip, especially when we drove past former homes belonging to friends.

    It was good to see him and thank him yet again for such a gracious gift. That week at the beach has spared the Adorables a lot of trauma and we’re grateful.

    My husband has been reminding me this morning that receiving gifts gracefully is also an important ministry. We don’t have to feel guilty for not “doing enough.” Sometimes just accepting a gift from someone is a better expression of love.

    I hadn’t thought of that before.

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  9. No I won’t be dancing. I’ve changed my mind.

    It’s pouring rain outside and while that normally would be a good thing, all I can think of is the sodden mess of the fire areas.

    I’m going to stay home and take off a little time to recharge. I’m worn out in a lot of ways.

    They expect up to four inches of rain overnight. That is not good news for the hillsides or the watershed.

    The county has placed wattles (long fat–6-12 inches wide–ropes of straw) and sand bags in front of storm drains to try to keep the heavy metals and toxins away from our watershed. We’ll see how this goes but it makes the roads more dangerous because, of course, water will pool with all the rain.

    The wattles are designed for rain water to flow through them–thus the straw will capture the contaminants. The county has been working very hard trying to protect the watershed by proper placement. They go before storm drains on the road, along slopes and, as much as possible, along any culverts or waterways leading to the river and thus the ocean.

    Sonoma County is an agricultural county. They’ve been working hard to get salmon back up the river and it’s a concern.

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  10. Good morning! Yesterday I drove over to the home of someone at church who I give clothes to occasionally when I weed out. The horse stables are near her. It’s only about one and a half miles from where we live. I once took Wesley back to the stables, but we did not stay long since he was not doing lessons. We live in an interesting area with upscale mixed with middle class mixed with lots of different cultures with some old time country. There was a sign by the pasture that warned to not advance toward the fence or feed the horses. Since my zoom on my tablet tends to fuzz photos, this was as good as I could do after I slowly walked up to the fence (does that countvas advancing?) The horses appear to each have a small pile of hay.

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  11. First the fires, and then the mudslides. California seasons.

    I’m up early, washing up the dog blankets. Cowboy had an accident in the kitchen last night, my fault, I should have been more insistent that he go outside before I went to bed last night, but he was being reluctant and not easily coaxed out for some reason. At least it’s cheap linoleum in there and easy to clean up.

    My cousin’s coming over in a few hours, we’re going out for lunch and/or a movie and/or something else, haven’t decided yet. But it’s been a little more than a year since she and my other cousin came over to my house to check out my poor windows and other yet-to-do projects I was just embarking on at that time. So since I have a few of those projects now done, I thought I’d give her the update tour, such as it is. It’s still not pretty or ‘company ready,’ really, but it’s better than it was.

    I’m trying to transition Carol into texting more (instead of telephoning me all the time), she likes to call me every single night and talk (talk, talk, I listen, it’s mostly one-sided); but some nights it’s just not that convenient for me (or I’m feeling a tad burned out with the conversations such as they are), like last night, and I’d prefer on those nights to text with her instead.

    I tried to engage her last night via text but she said what she wanted to “talk” about would take too long to write in a text and she wanted to talk. I asked her (a 2nd time) if everything was OK (if it’s a true emergency or urgent need, I’d call back; otherwise, maybe a back-and-forth text conversation might suffice for tonight?). She said no emergency and she’d call me today. For someone so wedded to electronic gadgetry, it surprises me she’s not more comfortable with texting conversationally.

    I have finally taught her (if she must) to only text me during the day when I’m at work, no calls during those hours. When she does call there, I will just let it go to voice mail and then, if it’s necessary, text her in response.

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  12. Janice, we have ‘horse country’ next door to us, too, I always like driving through that more rural (but very upscale) part of the peninsula 🙂

    I wish we’d get some rain here, there’s none on the forecast although the local news was prompting the possibility sometime this week. It has been quite overcast and cool all week.

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  16. So, I made a new soup yesterday, “Roasted squash, carrot, sweet potato, soup”. It was a lot of work. I finished up at 11pm. Sure hope it is good. I even had to borrow a larger pot from church. Then I’m finally going to bed and just check email quickly on my phone. There was a message from my son answering a question that I had asked and he said, call me, I’m still up. So I did, and bedtime was after midnight. Good talk, but I am tired.

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  17. Good luck, dj, with trying to limit Carol’s calls. Our relative typically does this several times a day. He mostly will wait until after 9 a.m. now. Everything is an emergency to him, but most times it is just to talk. He has nothing to say, so it is usually foolishness. It is difficult to be patient. There is a balance of being patient and encouraging thoughtfulness.

    He does not do this just with us, but other family members, his pastor and others. He will get each to take him places etc. Often, they think they are the only one helping. One year he had three Thanksgiving dinners! He gets out far more than I do and lives in a building with many, many apartments, interconnected with two other buildings also full of apartments. They bring in entertainment and provide many other activities. IOW, it is not that he is isolated.

    It is difficult to distinguish between immaturity and illness. You have to pray for wisdom and set your own limits. If you know others involved, it also helps to share what you are doing with each one and hear what they are doing.

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  18. This relative is also in a bible study at his building and involved in church. He even leads the bible study in the summer time. He does help his pastor and volunteers at a local nursing home. When he wants to be, he can be a real pleasure with whom to converse. It took him time to get to that place and people who insisted on some growth in maturity. We are grateful for that. We all need people to help us see things in a new light and to give us boundaries.

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  19. Thanks, Kathaleena — yes, there seems to be an ‘urgency’ in her mind to talk every night but mostly it’s the details of what she’s eaten (or has seen somewhere that she wants to eat), sometimes thoughts about who’s hacking into her phone, what all she’s going to buy with her ‘windfall’ from past pension payments (due on 11/29, so she’ll get it too late to pay for her own Thanksgiving meal, of course, though I’ve said I’d like to be reimbursed this time when she gets all that money a week later; we’ll see).

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  20. The good news is she has made it to church the past couple of Sundays and to Bible study on Wednesday mornings at the church. The more Christians she can be around, the better I feel.

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  21. For those who might want to try Aloe Vera Juice(inner fillet only). here is what I use: http://www.lilyofthedesert.com/

    I felt a little sore throat starting several days ago. I also had extra nasal congestion. Yesterday the ore throat was worse so I put about an ounce of aloe juice in a bottle of Core water along with some orange juice. Soon my nasal congestion was clearing. The sore throat, on one side only was sore all day. I had another two ounces of Aloe, one each in the afternoon and at night. This morning, no sore throat and my nasal passages seem clear. I do not know if anyone else will have this same quick clearing of cold symptoms as I do. I use to get bronchitis, but the aloe seems in my system to block the sore throat progression into the chest. I have been trying to figure out how it works, but I am not a scientist. I once tried a less expensive brand and it was not as potent. You have to use the inner fillet juice or you will have intestinal cramps. You will get a little gas with it, but that will, as they say, “pass.” I have gotten it at Kroger in the health food department, and ordered a smaller bottle on line at Walmart. It costs less than cold remedies.

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  23. Janice, as a healthcare worker, I would say that your case alone does not prove anything, one way or another. The placebo effect is a real phenomenon although it is not completely, and furthermore, we cannot rule out that it may have been coincidence that the abatement of symptoms and taking the aloe vera juice coincided. As we do not even know what caused your symptoms, i.e. whether it was a bacterial infection or a viral infection or perhaps just an inflammatory reaction to an irritant, we cannot say how the aloe vera’s properties may have influenced the outcome.

    I wrote that somewhat tongue in cheek, but it is all true nevertheless. The professor who teaches anthropology (the class I haven’t gone to in five weeks due to the ongoing strike) has a theory that human health beliefs change when their current health beliefs seem to fail in the face of a new epidemic. He pointed out that although modern medicine had made great strides, the failure to cure cancer, the rise of HIV, etc. have led to the general public beginning to doubt modern medicine and thus seek cures in other alternative treatments. I knew a woman with HIV (from a tainted blood transfusion) who attributed a sudden turnaround in her slow decline to taking aloe vera juice. My mother touts the benefits of a herbal tea in shrinking cancerous tumours, because it seemed to work in a couple of cases we knew. When I was in West Africa, I resorted sometimes to folk remedies I was aware of, simply because there were no other resources. In at least one instance, the person to whom the remedy was applied recovered in a rather spectacular manner (third degree burns healing without a trace of scarring are pretty spectacular). Yet, I still wouldn’t necessarily trust to that case alone, because helplessly watching other patients die when I knew that better access to modern medicine might have saved them made me cautious about attributing the few cures to what I did.

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  25. My family had a local reputation. Once, while my siblings and mother and I were walking along the road for fresh air and exercise, a car stopped and the couple, who were obviously well heeled city dwellers, said they had just brought a farm and were looking for an Amish family to run it. My mother politely directed them to the nearest Amish community, about a half hour’s drive away, while we privately concluded that a) they thought we were Amish because we were wearing skirts, and b) they had no idea what the Amish actually wore. We were referred to by those who knew us personally or through mutual acquaintances as ‘the (Surname) girls’, known by reputation for our musical ability, our creativity with needle or crotchet hook, and our old-fashioned ways, and treated somewhat as pets by the more elderly members of the community, who liked to see that not all young people were going to the dogs.

    That generation has mostly passed away now, but I sometimes still encounter those who heard of us by repute, and I’m greeted as one well known by those I barely recognize. Being the only one left of four makes me feel a bit lonely, and also like I’m caught in a time warp in which I never grew up. That time warp is partly due to the fact my appearance has changed very little. A few years ago, I encountered a family friend whom I had not seen face to face in at least a half decade, and she told me, in her hilariously blunt way, that I still looked fourteen, although I was 27, nearing 28, at the time (she knew my real age, as she has a daughter a few months older than I). I have a few gray hairs, made more obvious to me by my dark hair, and there are fine lines around my eyes when I smile, but I’m beginning to think that like my mother, my hair colour will tell more about my age than my face will – her face has changed very little from the pictures we have of her as a school teacher before she married. That is probably a good thing, but I feel like the illusion of perpetual youth means I’m not taken seriously. Well, perhaps it is a good thing that I seem to be much younger, as not having established one’s career by one’s thirties can be seen as being irresponsible.

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  26. Mrs OC is moving up on Amazon today. She’s now #8,121!

    My website has had more than four times the usual visitors today. This is exciting–but it’s a shame it’s all because OC died. 😦

    Lovely time, otherwise, sitting in the recliner, listening to the rain and reading a funny book.

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  28. Michelle – Last night I was reading an article on the Christianity Today website, & there was an ad for Mrs. Oswald Chambers at the end (or maybe it was even in the middle) of the article. 🙂

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  30. Makes it worthwhile getting up at 4:30 this morning so I could do a 5:15 interview!

    I thought I was going to have a quiet, relaxing day. Instead, I’ve been handling the above excitement and wrestling with my newsletter. But, now I’m going to sit and read. 🙂

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  31. Nice time with my cousin at lunch. Took the scenic drive home along the cliffs overlooking the coastline. A gray day out there, but it’s always breathtaking.

    We laughed as she was leaving since we’d been talking about how to “hide” my trash cans in the driveway once the new stucco and pavers are in — and realized, hmm, the way things look that’s really the least of the eyesores. on my property right now.

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  32. I just got home from working in the church media center. A very nice couple is helping me box up all the books in the children’s section to move them to the area in the church (on another floor) where the children’s classrooms are. We are also moving all the reference books into the room where the children’s books were. I have wanted to do this for a long time, but it never worked out before because it felt overwhelming to do it by myself.

    I am sore, too! We worked in there Saturday, also. This is my second go around with sore muscles from doing thingas I am not doing on a routine basis.. At least it is good exercise.

    We are sorting out the books that are not related in some manner to Christianity so those can be sold in a big yard sale our church will have in a few months. I am so thankful to have this couple to help make decisions about what to keep.

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  33. DJ – I meant to suggest this earlier in the week. If you haven’t already, take the time to watch Stranger Things 2. It is at least as good as, if not even better than, the first season.

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  34. Thanks Kizzie, I keep forgetting about that 🙂 I’m escaping with more sappy Hallmark Christmas movies tonight.

    Talked to Carol and it was what I suspected — lots of paranoia going on about strangers hacking into her phone (and requiring her to continually change her password, which then she forgets and the account locks her out …). Ugh. She’s got an impressive list of things (books, electronic gadgets, brand-name clothing, an afghan) she’ll buy with her pension back-payments, so she listed all of those. She’s getting a candy bar for the ex-roommate who loans her money every month. Sigh.

    I am taking Tess in for an early-morning vet visit tomorrow, she’s had a limp in her right front paw — she’s had this before — but it’s persisting and has gone on, intermittently now, for about 2 weeks, so I guess I need to get it looked at. X-rays, of course And I received the estimate from the window folks today. I may be painting my house myself. 🙂 Oy.

    OK, back to Hallmark Christmas. 🙂 🙂 Always a happy ending.

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