Sameol, sameol KIm.
But nothing wrong with that.
When you reach your eighties, all change is bad.
Buy, GO GIR L! p and at ’em.
Again, not to make light of Phos’ situation. But some day she will look back in retrospect and see one of the events in he life that she made it through.
I have several of those, as you would expect.
But it’s serious while it happens.
Real serious.
Good morning! I took care of Art’s needs before he headed out. I’ve done two online Bible studies this morning. Enjoying coffee while letting the word sink in. I need to go buy supplies for the office today. I have two inmate Bible studies to review and get mailed. Still working on getting health insurance. Still trying to figure out good diet foods for Art that take a lot of shopping and prep instead of doing the costly Nutrasystem. Trying to take some photos and write/post haiku along the way. Need to find out if I have to gift wrap all the things I bought for the public school child who is in need. I got Christmas cards out yesterday which I send to members of both our churches along with others…and there are always dishes to wash by hand, talking to Karen for support, talking to my brother for his needs, and checking Facebook and Instagram. It is life that is full and ever without a paycheck and related benefits. Most probably would think it to be boring, but I feel content most of the time except for when my ears get bent out of shape.
I posted this late yesterday for Roscuro:
Roscuro, I really do believe it is a horrible injustice. I am sorry if my comment did not convey my thought about that. I just assumed you would know that I think it is almost unbelievable in its scope of injustice. It is not only an individual injustice as so often happens, but it is a massive injustice. I have never ever even heard of anything worse on campus except for the students who have been killed by being caught up in student riots. Even that is not so massive. Yes, I would fully expect for you to grieve in the moment as many must be. I was just thinking mostly of the advantage of being a Christian at just such a time as this. I can not imagine how hopeless others must feel. I would not be surprised if some are so down that they might even commit suicide. I hope that does not happen, but given what some might be experiencing on top of this, this could push someone to consider that. In my original comment, I was just trying to stay positive. But it is true that we are suppose to mourn with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are mourning. I am truly sorry that you have suffered this change of plans and shock of facing the future after this senseless use of the nation’s students. But I still praise God for how He can open His storehouses of provision to take care of you as His beloved daughter and cherished worker in bringing people to better health.
I still don’t understand how all of these people are being fired based on somebody’s accusations. Are they being questioned prior to the firing or do they just wake up one day and get told they were fired based on the accusations of some nameless person? I probably have not been following it closely enough.
It’s about every two hours someone else is gone. Matt Lauer this morning, I see. My guess about those who vanish like this is that they either acknowledge the accusations are true or there’s an abundance of obvious evidence that can’t really be refuted. Otherwise, they would (and should) fight it.
Today — work, of course. Tomorrow I take the Jeep in for service.
Guy fixing my sink didn’t show yesterday. He’s pretty reliable usually, but sometimes is a no-show with no explanation or heads-up. I’d like to get at least a text saying something’s come up and he won’t be there, but oh well. So still can’t use the kitchen sink. Hopefully he’ll be her today.
I have an 8-year-old boy for Angel Tree. Legos is on his list. Any specific suggestions for what to buy? And sweaters and jeans are preferred for clothing, child size 8. We’re not supposed to spend anymore on the combined gifts than $30-$40, though I typically wind up spending closer to $50.
Some of those being fired have had long-standing reputations for being bad, as it turns out, but it was something that was tolerated and was never known beyond the inner circles.
I just did something for the first time in my life.
I had someone else cut my toenails. I can’t do a good job anymore.
Cost me $10.00, ($7 for them, $3.00 tip)
It is worth it.
We have been impacted by strikes several times. There is much injustice in the world and it is all sad. When you are doing the very best you can and things fall apart or are taken away, it is especially sad. I am sorry your life is impacted in this way, Roscuro. It is good to grieve such things.
From Fox News (apparently the NY Times has been investigating the story for a couple months now and was perhaps ready to publish, which prompted today’s firing?):
Howard Kurtz said this morning that the firing of Matt Lauer by NBC News was a “preemptive move” ahead of expected reports on the “Today” show host’s alleged misconduct by the New York Times and other outlets.
Kurtz said NBC News is attempting to “control the narrative” and “take the first step” rather than have to react to a bombshell news report about one of its most high-profile anchors.
So far, no details have emerged on what Lauer is alleged to have done and Lauer has not made a statement.
____________________________
Romans 8:28 says, “”And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose”
I was thinking about Phos, and Karen, and others during prayer time this morning. And I thought of that. Then I thought back about how things worked out for me. Bad thngs at the time. Not to say that any of this is good, but somehow it works out. I thought of a couple of things that were bad.
I told you many times that on Sunday morning November 5, 1955, all my friends were gone and I went to church alone. I made the weird decision to sit in the balcony. Never done that before, or since.
Another, I never told this before: I went to work in 1957 for the USDA Dept. of Agriculture as a part time WAE (While Actually Employed) cartographic draftsman. I got no benefits, just pay for the time I worked. I did not pay retirement, which was good at the time. I was going to be a preacher, not a government worker. I worked as a WAE GS-3 for 5.5 years. Later, circumstances made me a Cartographer/Pyysical Scientist for the Defense Mapping Agency (Now Geospatial Intelligence Agency. In those days a name like that would be Top Secret. You can see better imagery on Google Map than the stuff we worked with in those days.)
In 1989 because of circumstances, I decided to retire. When I retired, they figured that the years as a WAE should count. So they figured my pay and subtracted 3.5% of everything I made during 5.5 years to make up for the loss. They subtracted all of it from the first checks.
But it increased my annuity and I’ve recovered it many times over.
It just seem strange how things work out.
Never thought about that before.
That is cool, Chas! God makes it up in the long run. He has it saved in His storeroom to give you when He decided it was time. Some of that may help grandchildren in their time of need that you have no way of knowing about. But God knows.
🙂 I was looking through my CD’s for Christmas music.
I found an old CD by Kathryn Grayson.
I used to be in love with Kathryn Grayson.
Except for Anita Carter, she has the most beautiful voice in the world.
And she is beautiful.
I just liked her.
____________________________
(Keillor’s) firing came one day after publications of a Washington Post column in which he argued against the idea that Minnesota Sen. Al Franken should resign his seat over allegations he groped radio host Leann Tweeden during a 2006 USO tour before he was elected to public office.
“Eleven years later, a talk show host in L.A., goes public, and there is talk of resignation,” Keillor wrote. “This is pure absurdity, and the atrocity it leads to is a code of public deadliness. No kidding.”
_______________________________
Nineteen year old is home, before heading off to the Navy. She has been teaching ten and sixteen how to ride. This morning, she told ten to go get the horse and bring it around. Now she is leading the horse while ten year old rides, holding on with her knees. She is not allowed to touch the horse with her hands. A lot of younger children ride, but they have somebody who likes horses teaching them. I am glad nineteen has made the time to teach ten. It should change her world. She came in with a very large grin, after catching the horse and penning it by herself. Confidence. I like that. Self esteem, not so much. But confidence? Wonderful.
Janice, and Kizzie (and Chas), I truly understand the motivations behind your words, and was and am not angry at you, although your words stung a little like salt in a wound. I have, in my over three decades, had some experience of things that seemed to go wrong turning out for the better – after all, I’ve been relating many of those incidents as they occurred to the members here. Yet, some of the things that went wrong in my life, such as not being able to find steady work in my field, have not yet resolved, although it has been now eight years since I first graduated and got my nursing license. If the first decade and a half of my adult life has taught me anything, it is that not everyone – it could be said no one, since death, often preceded by illness, comes to all of us – gets the happy ending they hoped for in this life and the mature Christian needs to learn to accept that and live their lives in faithfulness anyway.
The reassurance that everything will turn out for good comes with the acknowledgement that the good God intends for his children is not always what humanity would call good. Faith, after all, is the evidence of things not seen. Paul spent his Christian life in more and more difficult, not easier, circumstances. Yet, he had faith that his circumstances were working for good, not a good that would necessarily benefit him materially or even physically, but one that would benefit others and glorify God while forming him into the image of Christ. He learned to rejoice in weakness and suffering for those reasons. Paul spoke of despairing, even of life at times, and of being perplexed and cast down. So, for those responding to the bewildered and downcast, I would just quote the caution of Solomon’s Proverb (25:20):
Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.
As I have to remind my own mother at times, I am not expecting you to make my problems better, I just need you to listen – and, perhaps, to encourage me, not in hoping that my circumstances might change to the more comfortable, but in being faithful whether those circumstances change or not.
Mumsee, the measures taken by human efforts to eradicate sin will always be either to lenient or too harsh. That being said, I am surprised by not only the current campaign to punish those whose wandering eyes and groping fingers have become notorious, but also at those who are upset that so many are being outed as lecherous. Why are we surprised at the depths of human depravity or at how widespread it is, and why would we want to leave it as the status quo? I have enjoyed watching old films, such as Ricky touts as being the only ones worthwhile, but I often find myself stepping back from my enjoyment and asking myself, should I be enjoying this? The trope of the worldweary and cynical secretary warning the fresh faced ingénue about the boss’s flirtatious tactics is repeated again and again in the frothy comedies of the 1930s and 40s, and the portrayal of beautiful women as male toys seems to only get worse in the 1950s. Comedies such as ‘Daytime Wife’ with Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell, in which a neglected wife decides to take a job in order to find out what secretaries have that wives don’t, ending with a ‘happy’ ending where the husband decides the secretary isn’t all that much and is promptly forgiven, leave me thinking that society has always been careless of sexual morality. It is just that formerly, the sexual peccadilloes of powerful men were shrugged of as men being men, and the foul content of their conversation dismissed as “locker room talk”. Weinstein, after all, attempted to defend himself by blaming his reprehensible behaviour on being accustomed to the culture of former decades.
When I trained in the nursing home, more than once I was aware of the elderly male residents, ones who were in full possession of their faculties, ‘looking me over’ – one, after such an inspection, invited me to his room whenever I wanted. It was a twisted and ugly experience, and had those men been in any kind of power over me, I would have felt horribly intimidated (as it was, I avoided getting too close to them and spent as little time as possible in their presence) and fearful for my safety. Yet, I gathered from the conversation of my coworkers there and in other settings, that such lecherous behaviour towards nurses was common, and one simply had to learn to avoid the grasping hands and ignore the leering looks and foul words. The ‘sexy’ nurse is a popular pornographic theme, and male patients like to imagine their fantasy has become reality. Just recently, during the tour of the hospital where I’ve been doing my clinical placement, my group walked onto an elevator, where there was a middle aged couple already. The man exclaimed something like, “Oh! Wow!” Our instructor, thinking we were crowding the couple, apologized, but the man replied, “No, I like it!” Glancing at him leaning back and staring at the group of us mostly young women, I knew in what sense he meant he liked it. So, while I do not think the current public campaign will in the end, change anything permanently for the better, I have no desire to prop up the cultural habit of viewing working women as side benefits for the boss.
I have no problem with those guilty being held accountable. I am just concerned that they are being held guilty in the media and not in the courtroom. Guilt by accusation is not the same as guilt by action.
It also seems very strange to me that these women and men would have put up with it. But then, I also have always figured that is what happens in Hollywood and since Hollywood is the leader of our actions, it would be in the work force as well. I don’t watch movies or television because of the cuteness portrayed and not cute.
My imagination is not sufficient to come up with a plausible reason NPR is taking such a harsh–draconian, really–stance on Keillor after one accusation. What could be so bad a secular organization does this in such a scorch the earth way? (No need to answer that hypothetical question).
Mumsee, Hollywood, like all cultural productions, is more of a reflection of the world than its trendsetter. The truth is, as the saying goes, stranger than fiction. People would not watch films if they could not relate to the characters on some level, if they could not find something familiar in the scenes that flash before their eyes. The cynicism of the secretary avoiding her boss’ attentions was already familiar to the viewers of the 1930s and 40s. Before films, O Henry talked about the shop girls of New York learning to navigate the treacherous waters of the male customer or boss:
There was another source of learning in the great departmental school. Whenever you see three or four shop-girls gather in a bunch and jingle their wire bracelets as an accompaniment to apparently frivolous conversation, do not think that they are there for the purpose of criticizing the way Ethel does her back hair. The meeting may lack the dignity of the deliberative bodies of man; but it has all the importance of the occasion on which Eve and her first daughter first put their heads together to make Adam understand his proper place in the household. It is Woman’s Conference for Common Defense and Exchange of Strategical Theories of Attack and Repulse upon and against the World, which is a Stage, and Man, its Audience who Persists in Throwing Bouquets Thereupon. Woman, the most helpless of the young of any animal—with the fawn’s grace but without its fleetness; with the bird’s beauty but without its power of flight; with the honey-bee’s burden of sweetness but without its—Oh, let’s drop that simile—some of us may have been stung.
During this council of war they pass weapons one to another, and exchange stratagems that each has devised and formulated out of the tactics of life.
“I says to ‘im,” says Sadie, “ain’t you the fresh thing! Who do you suppose I am, to be addressing such a remark to me? And what do you think he says back to me?”
The heads, brown, black, flaxen, red, and yellow bob together; the answer is given; and the parry to the thrust is decided upon, to be used by each thereafter in passages-at-arms with the common enemy, man.
Thus Nancy learned the art of defense; and to women successful defense means victory. [From ‘The Trimmed Lamp’ in The Trimmed Lamp and other tales of the Four Million by O Henry, published 1906]
She hurried into the store and sent in to Mr. Otter by a clerk her name and the letter he had written her father. She was shown directly into his private office.
Mr. Otter arose from his desk as Elsie entered and took both hands with a hearty smile of welcome. He was a slightly corpulent man of nearly middle age, a little bald, gold spectacled, polite, well dressed, radiating.
“Well, well, and so this is Beatty’s little daughter! Your father was one of our most efficient and valued employees. He left nothing? Well, well. I hope we have not forgotten his faithful services. I am sure there is a vacancy now among our models. Oh, it is easy work—nothing easier.”
Mr. Otter struck a bell. A long-nosed clerk thrust a portion of himself inside the door.
“Send Miss Hawkins in,” said Mr. Otter. Miss Hawkins came.
“Miss Hawkins,” said Mr. Otter, “bring for Miss Beatty to try on one of those Russian sable coats and—let’s see—one of those latest model black tulle hats with white tips.”
Elsie stood before the full-length mirror with pink cheeks and quick breath. Her eyes shone like faint stars. She was beautiful. Alas! she was beautiful.
I wish I could stop this story here. Confound it! I will. No; it’s got to run it out. I didn’t make it up. I’m just repeating it…
While Elsie was admiring herself in the mirror, Mr. Otter went to the telephone booth and called up some number. Don’t ask me what it was.
“Oscar,” said he, “I want you to reserve the same table for me this evening. … What? Why, the one in the Moorish room to the left of the shrubbery. … Yes; two. … Yes, the usual brand; and the ’85 Johannisburger with the roast. If it isn’t the right temperature I’ll break your neck. … No; not her … No, indeed … A new one—a peacherino, Oscar, a peacherino!”…[From ‘Elsie in New York’ in The Four Million by O Henry, published 1906]
I have been sexually harassed in the past. At least once to the point that the company hired an attorney for me and the union hired an attorney for the two men. Depositions were taken and everything. So when I say that, I am serious when I say this…
I told all of you a few weeks ago that this was turning into a witch hunt. Now one person holds in their hand the ultimate power to cost another person their entire career, livelihood, etc. People are fired and questions are asked later. This is going to backfire. This isn’t the way you solve the sexual harassment situation.
This morning at 6 when I saw the Matt Lauer article I knew I was correct. I talked to the interim Team Leader at work and told him we need to address this. We have a Zero Tolerance Policy and if you even think maybe you shouldn’t say it then DON’T and if someone says something to you that you feel is offensive, then speak up right then. I am willing to cut some men some slack. Some are too stupid to know they are crossing a line until you tell them that may not speak to you that way.
I’m not sure it is a witch hunt. I’m do not know why, but for some reason media, entertainment, and artistic pursuits always have a high rate of scoundrels in their midst. In my teens, I studied music history, and while there were a number of good living composers, about 50 percent of them were libertines, womanizers, and generally lacked decent character – e.g. Haydn (had affairs), Mozart (his crude humour was past the pale), Liszt (serial womanizer who never actually married any of the women he lived with), Wagner (ran off with his principal conductor’s wife, who happened to be Liszt’s illegitimate daughter), Strauss (womanizer), Debussey (ditto). Those men were the celebrities of their day. Has anyone ever had the dubious pleasure of watching a documentary of the life of a prominent politician or entertainment figure of former years? Most of them play like soap operas. I say this having fond memories of some of Garrison Keillor’s humorous songs, but I’ve always thought he had loose morals. I remember my mother turning off a radio broadcast in which he was speaking (it wasn’t The Prairie Home Companion) because the content was too racy for her. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he, and out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, etc. A man may say he is only enjoying the scenery, but sooner or later, he will not keep his hands or his thoughts to himself. Of course, the entertainment, political, and media industries will not be able to deal with the upheaval, and will eventually close ranks again, but right now, we are seeing something of what Christ said:
There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. (Luke 12:2-3)
The media watchdog group Project Veritas has come under fire after The Washington Post caught a woman affiliated with the group trying to fool reporters with false sexual assault accusations against U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama. James O’Keefe, a conservative activist who leads Project Veritas, said in an email to supporters that one of his colleagues “had their cover blown” inside the Post. The newspaper published an account Monday of its dealings with Jaime Phillips, who told reporters that Moore impregnated her as a teenager and talked her into having an abortion. When details of her story didn’t check out, Post reporters dug deeper and linked her to Project Veritas. It’s unclear whether Phillips sought to discredit women who have accused Moore of sexual misconduct, expose anti-Moore bias at the Post, or both. Reporters said Phillips repeatedly asked them to guarantee Moore would lose the election if her story were published, but they said they couldn’t do that.
So, the effort to prove the previous stories on Moore were politically motivated actually provided considerable evidence that they weren’t. As the Proverb says, “He that rolls a stone, it will return upon him, and he that digs a pit will fall into it.”
And, I suspect, this is part of the reason Pence and others keep tight boundaries. People may think it is sexist of them, but they are trying to keep their thoughts and reputations intact in a deeply fallen world.
Furthermore, the Roy Moore story (Nov. 9) wasn’t the first story to break. Harvey Weinstein, a powerful film producer at Miramax, was the first (Oct. 5), after he was accused of reprehensible behaviour, of which there is considerable evidence that he committed, after an investigation by the New York Times – Weinstein and the Times are both said to be left-leaning. So it didn’t start with politicians nor for political reasons, but with an entertainment industry that was fed up with the corruption in its midst – it was high profile actresses accusing Weinstein.
Mumsee, as I’ve said before, the blood of Christ makes our hearts pure, so that good works, rather than evil ones, will come out of it and transforms our minds so that we cast down imaginations. Paul said that rules of “Touch not, taste not” may seem wise but are of no effect in stopping the lusts of the flesh, meaning rules do not stop evil thoughts. That makes it dangerous to trust to rules to keep one from sin – it is like trusting, to use an analogy from public health, the birth control pill to prevent a sexually transmitted disease. The pill is ineffective against disease and rules are ineffective against depravity.
If it makes you feel less in need of defending him, I care nothing about Pence, he isn’t my Vice President after all. When I used his name in our last discussion, it was simply to identify the rule I was talking about.
Christ made himself of no reputation and spent time with both men and women of very ill repute, alone even, yet the Sanhedrin couldn’t bring any accusation against him, despite producing false witnesses, and eventually had to convict him of blasphemy because he stated he was the Son of God. That passage where it speaks of Christ making himself of no reputation in Philippians 2 begins, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The theme of living the Christian life throughout the New Testament implies that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, and will produce good fruit, against which there is no law. Thus, as Peter said, we should be suffering for well doing, not evil doing. We are promised, when that happens, that the Spirit will give us the words to speak to confound those who would destroy us. They may destroy us anyway, as they sought to do to Christ, but that isn’t our fault. The good reputation of the Christian comes from a similarly blameless life as Christ’s and thus, to have such a reputation, we need to focus more on following Christ and less on trying to protect our reputation. Seeking to protect our reputation before all else is a form of trying to save our life, and we are told that he that saves his life will lose it.
The article I read on Garrison Keillor said that the allegation stems from him putting his hand on the back of a woman to comfort her. Her shirt was “open” (?), so his hand went up her shirt several inches. He says she recoiled & he immediately apologized, then sent an email apology to which she replied that she forgave him.
It sounded like he thinks his firing was more about a recent remark of his than the actual allegation.
It is possible a more damning story, or more than one, may emerge, but this one didn’t sound like intentional sexual harassment.
Roscuro – I am sorry that our efforts to offer an encouraging word seemed like pouring salt into a wound.
When I feel that way, I try to keep in mind that sometimes people say things that may miss the mark, or their well-intentioned remarks can be clumsily worded or misunderstood.
I’ve had people trying to comfort me by reminding me that I will see Hubby again in Heaven. Yes, I know I will – & I am very grateful for that assurance – but that doesn’t help me in the day in, day out working out of things right now, or when the grief comes crashing down again. But I accept their intention – to be a comfort – despite the words. One man told me a couple times that Hubby is now my own personal guardian angel. Of course, I don’t believe that, but I appreciated his sweet-but-clumsy way of trying to comfort me.
Kizzie, I did begin my remark by saying I understood the good motivations behind the words. I hesitated to admit the sting, but I thought it would be better to be completely honest. I am truly not offended with any of you for what you have said to comfort me, and I appreciate the care and concern that your words sought to convey.
As to Garrison Keillor, I read his statement. It didn’t convince me one way or another. I have had a couple of men lay their hands, unsolicited, on the small of my back. I always stand very still and rigid when that happens, as it makes me feel very uncomfortable, and if one of them had begun moving his hand around, they probably would have got an elbow in the face – that line from the Apple Dumpling Gang comes to mind, from whenever the younger boy would haul off and kick an patronizing adult in the shin, “Clovis (read Roscuro) don’t like to be touched.” Men who are genuinely trying to comfort me have only ever put their arms or hands on or around my shoulders or upper back, and they don’t rub my shoulder or back in so doing. Not even my father would do that, and he, like all good fathers, teased and tickled and hugged and comforted us, but he doesn’t go laying his hand in the small of my back or giving uncomfortable back rubs. The only way Keillor could have ended up under her shirt several inches is if he had been sliding his hand up along the small of her back.
The Keillor accusations struck me as thin, although for the station to fire him I’m thinking there’s more to the story than has been released?
The Matt Lauer details were lurid, I read about the first 2 graphs of that story and exited. That was enough.
Busy day for me, started with a story on a body found at the bottom of our cliffs and ended with trying to find out what was going on at the top of the cliffs where our photographer shot a cool feature pic of 2 people having fun on a netted trampoline, the ocean in the background (it was a film shoot, CBS’ show “Scorpion,” and I was told they’d be there for the next few days).
In between I watched a nearly 4-hour video of a City Council meeting that took place last night to discuss the coyote issue, then I had to write that quickly at the end of the day.
Tomorrow I’m out of here early to drop the Jeep off for maintenance. Sink worker took another day off, he said he’d be back tomorrow to finish up. Until then, still no use of the kitchen sink.
It took me a couple of seconds to figure it out, then I scanned down and noticed the rooster comb.
But it’s early.
Good morning Aj, et.a..
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Good morning everyone. It’s another day. What are you going to do with it?
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Sameol, sameol KIm.
But nothing wrong with that.
When you reach your eighties, all change is bad.
Buy, GO GIR L! p and at ’em.
Again, not to make light of Phos’ situation. But some day she will look back in retrospect and see one of the events in he life that she made it through.
I have several of those, as you would expect.
But it’s serious while it happens.
Real serious.
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That is why they say hindsight is 20/20. What seems like the end of the world sometimes turns out to just be the beginning a better adventure.
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Chas said yesterday that he didn’t like Gene Autry because of Rudolph.
How about Chuck Berry?
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Did I miss the answer to the obvious question: “Whose chickens are these?”
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My day? Dancing, running errands and writing. Nothing new here. Move along.
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Good morning! I took care of Art’s needs before he headed out. I’ve done two online Bible studies this morning. Enjoying coffee while letting the word sink in. I need to go buy supplies for the office today. I have two inmate Bible studies to review and get mailed. Still working on getting health insurance. Still trying to figure out good diet foods for Art that take a lot of shopping and prep instead of doing the costly Nutrasystem. Trying to take some photos and write/post haiku along the way. Need to find out if I have to gift wrap all the things I bought for the public school child who is in need. I got Christmas cards out yesterday which I send to members of both our churches along with others…and there are always dishes to wash by hand, talking to Karen for support, talking to my brother for his needs, and checking Facebook and Instagram. It is life that is full and ever without a paycheck and related benefits. Most probably would think it to be boring, but I feel content most of the time except for when my ears get bent out of shape.
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I posted this late yesterday for Roscuro:
Roscuro, I really do believe it is a horrible injustice. I am sorry if my comment did not convey my thought about that. I just assumed you would know that I think it is almost unbelievable in its scope of injustice. It is not only an individual injustice as so often happens, but it is a massive injustice. I have never ever even heard of anything worse on campus except for the students who have been killed by being caught up in student riots. Even that is not so massive. Yes, I would fully expect for you to grieve in the moment as many must be. I was just thinking mostly of the advantage of being a Christian at just such a time as this. I can not imagine how hopeless others must feel. I would not be surprised if some are so down that they might even commit suicide. I hope that does not happen, but given what some might be experiencing on top of this, this could push someone to consider that. In my original comment, I was just trying to stay positive. But it is true that we are suppose to mourn with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are mourning. I am truly sorry that you have suffered this change of plans and shock of facing the future after this senseless use of the nation’s students. But I still praise God for how He can open His storehouses of provision to take care of you as His beloved daughter and cherished worker in bringing people to better health.
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Oh, I also will be working several hours at church today since we are reorganizing the media center. I have helpers, and it is all good!
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I still don’t understand how all of these people are being fired based on somebody’s accusations. Are they being questioned prior to the firing or do they just wake up one day and get told they were fired based on the accusations of some nameless person? I probably have not been following it closely enough.
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It’s about every two hours someone else is gone. Matt Lauer this morning, I see. My guess about those who vanish like this is that they either acknowledge the accusations are true or there’s an abundance of obvious evidence that can’t really be refuted. Otherwise, they would (and should) fight it.
Today — work, of course. Tomorrow I take the Jeep in for service.
Guy fixing my sink didn’t show yesterday. He’s pretty reliable usually, but sometimes is a no-show with no explanation or heads-up. I’d like to get at least a text saying something’s come up and he won’t be there, but oh well. So still can’t use the kitchen sink. Hopefully he’ll be her today.
I have an 8-year-old boy for Angel Tree. Legos is on his list. Any specific suggestions for what to buy? And sweaters and jeans are preferred for clothing, child size 8. We’re not supposed to spend anymore on the combined gifts than $30-$40, though I typically wind up spending closer to $50.
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Some of those being fired have had long-standing reputations for being bad, as it turns out, but it was something that was tolerated and was never known beyond the inner circles.
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I just did something for the first time in my life.
I had someone else cut my toenails. I can’t do a good job anymore.
Cost me $10.00, ($7 for them, $3.00 tip)
It is worth it.
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Good work. We pay people to do what we can’t or should not do. They know how to do it correctly as they learn to do it for diabetics and such.
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We have been impacted by strikes several times. There is much injustice in the world and it is all sad. When you are doing the very best you can and things fall apart or are taken away, it is especially sad. I am sorry your life is impacted in this way, Roscuro. It is good to grieve such things.
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From Fox News (apparently the NY Times has been investigating the story for a couple months now and was perhaps ready to publish, which prompted today’s firing?):
Howard Kurtz said this morning that the firing of Matt Lauer by NBC News was a “preemptive move” ahead of expected reports on the “Today” show host’s alleged misconduct by the New York Times and other outlets.
Kurtz said NBC News is attempting to “control the narrative” and “take the first step” rather than have to react to a bombshell news report about one of its most high-profile anchors.
So far, no details have emerged on what Lauer is alleged to have done and Lauer has not made a statement.
____________________________
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Romans 8:28 says, “”And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose”
I was thinking about Phos, and Karen, and others during prayer time this morning. And I thought of that. Then I thought back about how things worked out for me. Bad thngs at the time. Not to say that any of this is good, but somehow it works out. I thought of a couple of things that were bad.
I told you many times that on Sunday morning November 5, 1955, all my friends were gone and I went to church alone. I made the weird decision to sit in the balcony. Never done that before, or since.
Another, I never told this before: I went to work in 1957 for the USDA Dept. of Agriculture as a part time WAE (While Actually Employed) cartographic draftsman. I got no benefits, just pay for the time I worked. I did not pay retirement, which was good at the time. I was going to be a preacher, not a government worker. I worked as a WAE GS-3 for 5.5 years. Later, circumstances made me a Cartographer/Pyysical Scientist for the Defense Mapping Agency (Now Geospatial Intelligence Agency. In those days a name like that would be Top Secret. You can see better imagery on Google Map than the stuff we worked with in those days.)
In 1989 because of circumstances, I decided to retire. When I retired, they figured that the years as a WAE should count. So they figured my pay and subtracted 3.5% of everything I made during 5.5 years to make up for the loss. They subtracted all of it from the first checks.
But it increased my annuity and I’ve recovered it many times over.
It just seem strange how things work out.
Never thought about that before.
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That is cool, Chas! God makes it up in the long run. He has it saved in His storeroom to give you when He decided it was time. Some of that may help grandchildren in their time of need that you have no way of knowing about. But God knows.
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A song about Idaho. Kinda. Where we can’t go surfin’ ’cause it’s 40 below …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Aerah72IEI
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Oh my.
AP NEWSALERT: Garrison Keillor says he’s been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of inappropriate behavior.
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That is painful.
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The Idaho song,
That is what I am wondering. Is it a movement to destroy people? Like, that bakery won’t make a cake for my wedding, they gotta go?
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Woof.
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Her conclusion at the end, however, is deeply flawed. Sigh.
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🙂 I was looking through my CD’s for Christmas music.
I found an old CD by Kathryn Grayson.
I used to be in love with Kathryn Grayson.
Except for Anita Carter, she has the most beautiful voice in the world.
And she is beautiful.
I just liked her.
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(Keillor’s) firing came one day after publications of a Washington Post column in which he argued against the idea that Minnesota Sen. Al Franken should resign his seat over allegations he groped radio host Leann Tweeden during a 2006 USO tour before he was elected to public office.
“Eleven years later, a talk show host in L.A., goes public, and there is talk of resignation,” Keillor wrote. “This is pure absurdity, and the atrocity it leads to is a code of public deadliness. No kidding.”
_______________________________
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Nineteen year old is home, before heading off to the Navy. She has been teaching ten and sixteen how to ride. This morning, she told ten to go get the horse and bring it around. Now she is leading the horse while ten year old rides, holding on with her knees. She is not allowed to touch the horse with her hands. A lot of younger children ride, but they have somebody who likes horses teaching them. I am glad nineteen has made the time to teach ten. It should change her world. She came in with a very large grin, after catching the horse and penning it by herself. Confidence. I like that. Self esteem, not so much. But confidence? Wonderful.
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Janice, and Kizzie (and Chas), I truly understand the motivations behind your words, and was and am not angry at you, although your words stung a little like salt in a wound. I have, in my over three decades, had some experience of things that seemed to go wrong turning out for the better – after all, I’ve been relating many of those incidents as they occurred to the members here. Yet, some of the things that went wrong in my life, such as not being able to find steady work in my field, have not yet resolved, although it has been now eight years since I first graduated and got my nursing license. If the first decade and a half of my adult life has taught me anything, it is that not everyone – it could be said no one, since death, often preceded by illness, comes to all of us – gets the happy ending they hoped for in this life and the mature Christian needs to learn to accept that and live their lives in faithfulness anyway.
The reassurance that everything will turn out for good comes with the acknowledgement that the good God intends for his children is not always what humanity would call good. Faith, after all, is the evidence of things not seen. Paul spent his Christian life in more and more difficult, not easier, circumstances. Yet, he had faith that his circumstances were working for good, not a good that would necessarily benefit him materially or even physically, but one that would benefit others and glorify God while forming him into the image of Christ. He learned to rejoice in weakness and suffering for those reasons. Paul spoke of despairing, even of life at times, and of being perplexed and cast down. So, for those responding to the bewildered and downcast, I would just quote the caution of Solomon’s Proverb (25:20):
As I have to remind my own mother at times, I am not expecting you to make my problems better, I just need you to listen – and, perhaps, to encourage me, not in hoping that my circumstances might change to the more comfortable, but in being faithful whether those circumstances change or not.
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Mumsee, the measures taken by human efforts to eradicate sin will always be either to lenient or too harsh. That being said, I am surprised by not only the current campaign to punish those whose wandering eyes and groping fingers have become notorious, but also at those who are upset that so many are being outed as lecherous. Why are we surprised at the depths of human depravity or at how widespread it is, and why would we want to leave it as the status quo? I have enjoyed watching old films, such as Ricky touts as being the only ones worthwhile, but I often find myself stepping back from my enjoyment and asking myself, should I be enjoying this? The trope of the worldweary and cynical secretary warning the fresh faced ingénue about the boss’s flirtatious tactics is repeated again and again in the frothy comedies of the 1930s and 40s, and the portrayal of beautiful women as male toys seems to only get worse in the 1950s. Comedies such as ‘Daytime Wife’ with Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell, in which a neglected wife decides to take a job in order to find out what secretaries have that wives don’t, ending with a ‘happy’ ending where the husband decides the secretary isn’t all that much and is promptly forgiven, leave me thinking that society has always been careless of sexual morality. It is just that formerly, the sexual peccadilloes of powerful men were shrugged of as men being men, and the foul content of their conversation dismissed as “locker room talk”. Weinstein, after all, attempted to defend himself by blaming his reprehensible behaviour on being accustomed to the culture of former decades.
When I trained in the nursing home, more than once I was aware of the elderly male residents, ones who were in full possession of their faculties, ‘looking me over’ – one, after such an inspection, invited me to his room whenever I wanted. It was a twisted and ugly experience, and had those men been in any kind of power over me, I would have felt horribly intimidated (as it was, I avoided getting too close to them and spent as little time as possible in their presence) and fearful for my safety. Yet, I gathered from the conversation of my coworkers there and in other settings, that such lecherous behaviour towards nurses was common, and one simply had to learn to avoid the grasping hands and ignore the leering looks and foul words. The ‘sexy’ nurse is a popular pornographic theme, and male patients like to imagine their fantasy has become reality. Just recently, during the tour of the hospital where I’ve been doing my clinical placement, my group walked onto an elevator, where there was a middle aged couple already. The man exclaimed something like, “Oh! Wow!” Our instructor, thinking we were crowding the couple, apologized, but the man replied, “No, I like it!” Glancing at him leaning back and staring at the group of us mostly young women, I knew in what sense he meant he liked it. So, while I do not think the current public campaign will in the end, change anything permanently for the better, I have no desire to prop up the cultural habit of viewing working women as side benefits for the boss.
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I have no problem with those guilty being held accountable. I am just concerned that they are being held guilty in the media and not in the courtroom. Guilt by accusation is not the same as guilt by action.
It also seems very strange to me that these women and men would have put up with it. But then, I also have always figured that is what happens in Hollywood and since Hollywood is the leader of our actions, it would be in the work force as well. I don’t watch movies or television because of the cuteness portrayed and not cute.
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Re: My 11:13
I turned 33 on August 17, 1963
I got my first permanent full time job on September 2, 1963.
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My imagination is not sufficient to come up with a plausible reason NPR is taking such a harsh–draconian, really–stance on Keillor after one accusation. What could be so bad a secular organization does this in such a scorch the earth way? (No need to answer that hypothetical question).
https://world.wng.org/content/garrison_keillor_fired_for_inappropriate_behavior
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Mumsee, I grin like that when I get to be around and on horses!
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Mumsee, Hollywood, like all cultural productions, is more of a reflection of the world than its trendsetter. The truth is, as the saying goes, stranger than fiction. People would not watch films if they could not relate to the characters on some level, if they could not find something familiar in the scenes that flash before their eyes. The cynicism of the secretary avoiding her boss’ attentions was already familiar to the viewers of the 1930s and 40s. Before films, O Henry talked about the shop girls of New York learning to navigate the treacherous waters of the male customer or boss:
Link: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3707/3707-h/3707-h.htm#c1
Link:
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So, you’re saying there’s nothing new under the sun? 😉
Keep us posted on your situation, Roscuro. We all care. xoxox
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Chas, I will be a year older than you were in 1963 by the time I graduate – and I don’t expect graduation to guarantee me a full time job.
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I have been sexually harassed in the past. At least once to the point that the company hired an attorney for me and the union hired an attorney for the two men. Depositions were taken and everything. So when I say that, I am serious when I say this…
I told all of you a few weeks ago that this was turning into a witch hunt. Now one person holds in their hand the ultimate power to cost another person their entire career, livelihood, etc. People are fired and questions are asked later. This is going to backfire. This isn’t the way you solve the sexual harassment situation.
This morning at 6 when I saw the Matt Lauer article I knew I was correct. I talked to the interim Team Leader at work and told him we need to address this. We have a Zero Tolerance Policy and if you even think maybe you shouldn’t say it then DON’T and if someone says something to you that you feel is offensive, then speak up right then. I am willing to cut some men some slack. Some are too stupid to know they are crossing a line until you tell them that may not speak to you that way.
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Kim, it isn’t about “solving the sexual harassment situation”. It’s about politics.
Spilled over.
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I’m not sure it is a witch hunt. I’m do not know why, but for some reason media, entertainment, and artistic pursuits always have a high rate of scoundrels in their midst. In my teens, I studied music history, and while there were a number of good living composers, about 50 percent of them were libertines, womanizers, and generally lacked decent character – e.g. Haydn (had affairs), Mozart (his crude humour was past the pale), Liszt (serial womanizer who never actually married any of the women he lived with), Wagner (ran off with his principal conductor’s wife, who happened to be Liszt’s illegitimate daughter), Strauss (womanizer), Debussey (ditto). Those men were the celebrities of their day. Has anyone ever had the dubious pleasure of watching a documentary of the life of a prominent politician or entertainment figure of former years? Most of them play like soap operas. I say this having fond memories of some of Garrison Keillor’s humorous songs, but I’ve always thought he had loose morals. I remember my mother turning off a radio broadcast in which he was speaking (it wasn’t The Prairie Home Companion) because the content was too racy for her. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he, and out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, etc. A man may say he is only enjoying the scenery, but sooner or later, he will not keep his hands or his thoughts to himself. Of course, the entertainment, political, and media industries will not be able to deal with the upheaval, and will eventually close ranks again, but right now, we are seeing something of what Christ said:
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Chas, this story shows it isn’t all about politics: https://world.wng.org/content/newspaper_outs_fake_moore_accuser_with_conservative_ties
So, the effort to prove the previous stories on Moore were politically motivated actually provided considerable evidence that they weren’t. As the Proverb says, “He that rolls a stone, it will return upon him, and he that digs a pit will fall into it.”
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And, I suspect, this is part of the reason Pence and others keep tight boundaries. People may think it is sexist of them, but they are trying to keep their thoughts and reputations intact in a deeply fallen world.
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Furthermore, the Roy Moore story (Nov. 9) wasn’t the first story to break. Harvey Weinstein, a powerful film producer at Miramax, was the first (Oct. 5), after he was accused of reprehensible behaviour, of which there is considerable evidence that he committed, after an investigation by the New York Times – Weinstein and the Times are both said to be left-leaning. So it didn’t start with politicians nor for political reasons, but with an entertainment industry that was fed up with the corruption in its midst – it was high profile actresses accusing Weinstein.
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I thought it was Bill Cosby.
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Mumsee, as I’ve said before, the blood of Christ makes our hearts pure, so that good works, rather than evil ones, will come out of it and transforms our minds so that we cast down imaginations. Paul said that rules of “Touch not, taste not” may seem wise but are of no effect in stopping the lusts of the flesh, meaning rules do not stop evil thoughts. That makes it dangerous to trust to rules to keep one from sin – it is like trusting, to use an analogy from public health, the birth control pill to prevent a sexually transmitted disease. The pill is ineffective against disease and rules are ineffective against depravity.
If it makes you feel less in need of defending him, I care nothing about Pence, he isn’t my Vice President after all. When I used his name in our last discussion, it was simply to identify the rule I was talking about.
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The boundaries protect him from accusation as well.
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Christ made himself of no reputation and spent time with both men and women of very ill repute, alone even, yet the Sanhedrin couldn’t bring any accusation against him, despite producing false witnesses, and eventually had to convict him of blasphemy because he stated he was the Son of God. That passage where it speaks of Christ making himself of no reputation in Philippians 2 begins, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The theme of living the Christian life throughout the New Testament implies that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, and will produce good fruit, against which there is no law. Thus, as Peter said, we should be suffering for well doing, not evil doing. We are promised, when that happens, that the Spirit will give us the words to speak to confound those who would destroy us. They may destroy us anyway, as they sought to do to Christ, but that isn’t our fault. The good reputation of the Christian comes from a similarly blameless life as Christ’s and thus, to have such a reputation, we need to focus more on following Christ and less on trying to protect our reputation. Seeking to protect our reputation before all else is a form of trying to save our life, and we are told that he that saves his life will lose it.
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The article I read on Garrison Keillor said that the allegation stems from him putting his hand on the back of a woman to comfort her. Her shirt was “open” (?), so his hand went up her shirt several inches. He says she recoiled & he immediately apologized, then sent an email apology to which she replied that she forgave him.
It sounded like he thinks his firing was more about a recent remark of his than the actual allegation.
It is possible a more damning story, or more than one, may emerge, but this one didn’t sound like intentional sexual harassment.
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Roscuro – I am sorry that our efforts to offer an encouraging word seemed like pouring salt into a wound.
When I feel that way, I try to keep in mind that sometimes people say things that may miss the mark, or their well-intentioned remarks can be clumsily worded or misunderstood.
I’ve had people trying to comfort me by reminding me that I will see Hubby again in Heaven. Yes, I know I will – & I am very grateful for that assurance – but that doesn’t help me in the day in, day out working out of things right now, or when the grief comes crashing down again. But I accept their intention – to be a comfort – despite the words. One man told me a couple times that Hubby is now my own personal guardian angel. Of course, I don’t believe that, but I appreciated his sweet-but-clumsy way of trying to comfort me.
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Kizzie, I did begin my remark by saying I understood the good motivations behind the words. I hesitated to admit the sting, but I thought it would be better to be completely honest. I am truly not offended with any of you for what you have said to comfort me, and I appreciate the care and concern that your words sought to convey.
As to Garrison Keillor, I read his statement. It didn’t convince me one way or another. I have had a couple of men lay their hands, unsolicited, on the small of my back. I always stand very still and rigid when that happens, as it makes me feel very uncomfortable, and if one of them had begun moving his hand around, they probably would have got an elbow in the face – that line from the Apple Dumpling Gang comes to mind, from whenever the younger boy would haul off and kick an patronizing adult in the shin, “Clovis (read Roscuro) don’t like to be touched.” Men who are genuinely trying to comfort me have only ever put their arms or hands on or around my shoulders or upper back, and they don’t rub my shoulder or back in so doing. Not even my father would do that, and he, like all good fathers, teased and tickled and hugged and comforted us, but he doesn’t go laying his hand in the small of my back or giving uncomfortable back rubs. The only way Keillor could have ended up under her shirt several inches is if he had been sliding his hand up along the small of her back.
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I did wonder how he could have had his hand up her shirt while trying to comfort her.
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The Keillor accusations struck me as thin, although for the station to fire him I’m thinking there’s more to the story than has been released?
The Matt Lauer details were lurid, I read about the first 2 graphs of that story and exited. That was enough.
Busy day for me, started with a story on a body found at the bottom of our cliffs and ended with trying to find out what was going on at the top of the cliffs where our photographer shot a cool feature pic of 2 people having fun on a netted trampoline, the ocean in the background (it was a film shoot, CBS’ show “Scorpion,” and I was told they’d be there for the next few days).
In between I watched a nearly 4-hour video of a City Council meeting that took place last night to discuss the coyote issue, then I had to write that quickly at the end of the day.
Tomorrow I’m out of here early to drop the Jeep off for maintenance. Sink worker took another day off, he said he’d be back tomorrow to finish up. Until then, still no use of the kitchen sink.
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I can hear the ship horns in the harbor, must be some fog out there tonight.
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Roscuro (6:52), I thought of that same verse as I was driving home tonight
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