59 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-5-17”

  1. Seems like it’s just one crisis after another.
    I came in here this morning and saw on ATT Net that the world is running out of coffee.
    Sorry to open with such bad news.

    I didn’t stay up to see the finish, so I don’t know the outcome of the Georgia/Auburn game.
    And that’s the most important thing on the news lately.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Chas – Georgia embarrassed Auburn and made up for the previous game. That put Alabama in the final four, along with Clemson, Oklahoma and Georgia.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Thanks Aj. I visited most of the historical sites around Washington, but never got to Occoquan.
    What I remember most about Occoquan is the traffic report on I-95. “Clear all the way to the Occoquan.” I knew there was a town, but to me it was a bridge over a river.

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  8. Feeling happy for RKessler 😀

    The days are certainly shorter now. I am thankful that we have been blessed with rather warm and sunny weather so things seem brighter than what we have for many Decembers. I think the final leaf shedding tree has about finished dumping on the front yard. I told my brother not to do that section while he was here on Saturday. I may just rake the leaves up around the Birthday Tree for its winter blanket.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Sad to hear of more fires in CA.

    It is almost time for Miss Bosley to go back to her cat boarding school. I wonder what new things they will teach her this time. She has been extra clingy so it’s as if she knows.

    Has anyone noticed that it seems to be taking longer to get deliveries of online orders than it has in the past? My friend, Karen, has noticed that here in Atlanta, also.

    Liked by 2 people

  10. Morning! The cold air has blasted CO too! Just had hoped for some snow along with the cold. Busy day for me today…I did get my Christmas cards written, addressed and stamped….just need to take a family photo, get copied and stuffed inside the cards!
    Made me smile to think of Miguel riding into town with a friend…so very thankful ❤️
    Janice it seems that there is a problem of never getting packages due to package pirates around town. They follow the delivery trucks, park and walk up to the house and steal the packages right off the front porch! Even with home security cameras they are so bold as to steal right in broad daylight…what’s wrong with people!???

    Liked by 1 person

  11. 😦 Elvera wants to be doing something.
    But there’s nothing that I have for her to do.
    I can’t allow her in the kitchen unsupervised.
    It’s frustrating for both of us. I’m sure you know the feeling.
    When it gets a bit warmer today, I will let her sweep leaves off the deck.
    I could blow them off in half the time.
    But she needs to do something.
    Frustrating.

    Liked by 5 people

  12. Here is today’s Advent post: https://travellerunknownblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/advent-season-december-5th-2017/

    I posted yesterday’s Advent post at around 5 AM yesterday, because it was my clinical day, and I had to be out the door before six. The daily thread wasn’t up then, and I didn’t get home until nearly 8 PM, so here is yesterday’s Advent link: https://travellerunknownblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/advent-season-december-4th-2017/

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  13. Chas, could she do something simple, such as fold laundry? Also, I have observed that sometimes those with dementia enjoy the simple activities a young child might enjoy. Perhaps she could make cards or some other simple craft. I’m sorry it is so hard.

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  14. Chas was being in the kitchen one of her favorite things? You could tag team…she could take the ingredients you set out for making cookies…she could mix them together and you could either bake them then or freeze the dough for later. Could she separate the whites from the darks for the laundry? Rearrange like items in the pantry? Give her some Pledge and a dust rag? Refold the towels in the linen closet? Windex and paper towels to clean the inside window? those are the chores I call busy work and relatively simple tasks…most would not notice but there is some satisfaction in the little things getting done…..like sweeping leaves from the deck ❤️

    Liked by 4 people

  15. Roscuro, when my father-in-law was struggling with Alzheimer’s, on one day he was antsy my sister-in-law took a bunch of folded dish towels out of a pantry cupboard (out of Dad’s sight), shook them out so that they were no longer folded, and brought them to Dad and asked if he could fold the towels. It was completely “busy work,” and everyone but Dad knew it, but it still gave him something to do with his hands and he felt like he was doing something.

    Probably you have enough actual work for her to do not to resort to that, but something like that might be an option sometimes.

    Would books on tape be something she would enjoy? My sis-in-law got an ipad for her parents, and a big part of the reason was so that Dad could play memory games on it. He also enjoyed some large-print magazines. But all of that depends on Elvera’s interest and how much she can still do.

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  16. NancyJ. Linda brought over some dinner for us last night and I stood around watching her put it together. You know, the drinks and utensils, and stuff.
    Not serious. I just can’t trust her with the soove and she puts odd things into the refrigerator. I just need to monitor things.
    She retains her sweet disposition.
    Still TSWITW. And I love her like I did the first day.

    Liked by 11 people

  18. iPads are good for memory games and they are easy to operate. I remember my friend Norma liked playing solitaire but also had found some “memory” type games. You might have to get the sites up for her, but that might be a possibility.

    When they first came out, iPads became somewhat known for being good to buy for one’s parents or grandparents because of their easy access and operation (compared to computers). Smart phones are similar but too small, of course. Norma took a computer class but dropped out, she found it so frustrating.

    But the iPad was easy for her to get the hang of quickly and she enjoyed it immensely in her last few years. (I believe she was forced to get something because one of her doctors had gone to an email-only appointment system; she wound up loving email and it was nice to be able to “chat” with her that way through the week from time to time.)

    I thought the same thing about rkessler’s post saying Miguel was going into town with a friend. That’s a lot of progress, from the sounds of it.

    The days feel short and it seems like I get home so late now, but I’m still staying up too late. I didn’t get the dogs walked until around 9 last night, it was so quiet out and I had to keep watch constantly around us for coyotes. I don’t worry about that so much earlier in the evening, even though it’s dark then, too — at least there’s more activity on the streets.

    The Christmas lights in the neighborhood are so pretty 🙂

    Carol was telling me last night that she’s having to sleep on top of her covers because wearing shoes to bed is the only way she can keep her feet warm (circulation issues). So she layers on a bunch of clothes, too.

    I’ve bought her a wall calendar for Christmas but also now am thinking of getting her some good thermal or extra-warm socks she can wear. Her feet are very large, she wears I think a size 13 or 14 shoe (?) and her ankles are perpetually extremely swollen, so I may have to buy men’s socks? I found some online last night, heat socks I think they’re called (the largest women’s size is 10-13, but they also have men’s sizes). Does anyone have any recommendations for what would fit and be comfortable for night wear for her? I don’t think anything too tight would be very comfortable. I also thought maybe just the faux sheepskin slipper-socks might work and be easier for her to get on — the kind with little soft soles on them, too, so they could be worn inside during the day. Thanks for any ideas.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Maybe I should. If I hadn’t taken Chemistry, Mumsee, I would wait for the boiling water to get hotter.
    That’s how much I know.
    Donna, lights are pretty here also. This is the first community, ever, that I have lived where they put out Christmas lights. We don’t have any.

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  25. Sunrise this morning was 9:00am sunset will be 4:47pm. Now that’s a short day 🙂

    I do not like the short days – I’m driving during the dusk-type hour when it’s hard to see deer and other wildlife.

    Liked by 6 people

  26. Just outside taking a picture or two of ten year old. She is now able to go out to the pasture, catch the horse alone, walk the horse to the mailbox and back, to the round corral, brush her, get the reins on, get herself on, and ride. Good work nineteen year old! Good work ten year old!

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  27. Chas, one simple way to join in your neighborhood christmas spirit is to get a wreath and an inexpensive string of battery lights at the drug store (said by she who has no lights up yet, either, and only a dark, unlighted door wreath).

    Major fire activity here, some of us may get pulled into that. But for now I’m working on a story about how LA city animal services commission is considering putting all their shelter dogs on a vegan diet. A few of them have concluded that meat is bad for dogs.

    Liked by 4 people

  28. Chas’ house is probably one of those “modern” (post 1923) houses so maybe there’s even an outlet on the front porch? I’d love one of those, but they’re expensive to install.

    Instead of fiddling with an adapter for the porch light this year (I couldn’t get my real porch light to come back on for over 2 years after the last time I did that so I’m not going to tempt fate again by trying that), I am going to try stringing the light cord (if / when I get the lights up around a couple of the front windows) through my mail box slot which goes right into the living room and is close to a wall outlet).

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  31. I don’t have an outlet on the front. I have on in the back.
    Kim, I see that Roy Moore is holding a rally in Fairhope tonight.
    I thought, “Kim will surely want to attend that.” 😆

    Liked by 5 people

  33. I’m working on making cards for my mother-in-law for Christmas . . . not sure how they will turn out, including whether or not they will turn out well enough to give them as a gift. Two years ago I gave her photo cards, each one a different photo from her own garden. She loved them and last year she requested more cards, but not necessarily flowers, and I gave her birds. (She has many ceramic birds around her house and even a clock that gives bird calls on the hour.)

    This summer while I was taking photos of flowers, the idea came to me of taking photos of Indiana wildflowers, each one with a critter on or near it (a goldfinch, a butterfly, a hummingbird, a bee), working them in parchment (perhaps combining two photos in some cases, or moving flowers around in the arrangement), and hand coloring them with colored pencils.

    I’ve made a lot of cards with parchment the last few years, but I have always used patterns or templates, never my own design (though I’ve combined tools and played with the cards to make it my own design). To make perhaps a dozen cards, from my own photos, is a fairly big project, and I meant to get started far earlier than December.

    But this week I have selected photos (more than I actually need, knowing they won’t all turn out well), turned them into black-and-white and shrunk them a bit. Today I have printed out several, traced them onto parchment with pencil, and then gone over them with parchment tools and erased the pencil lines. I haven’t done more than that with any of them, so it’s way too early to know if any of them will actually look good.

    But right now I am working with a goldfinch photo that has long been one of my favorites, but with the flowers rearranged just a bit for a slightly better arrangement, and I think this one will look good. I also did a monarch on a milkweed flower and a few others. Taking photos is easier, and so is working from someone else’s design! But I’m hoping I can make these work and get some pretty cards out of them.

    If not, there is always a Cracker Barrel gift card . . .

    Liked by 2 people

  34. Dogs are Canines. Canines are carnivores. Thus dogs eat meat. That is pretty much what the “canine” teeth are use for; to eat meat. The word that comes to mind is “asinine”. Rhymes with canine.

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  35. Speaking of canines and carnivores, one of our neighbors has pet chickens. Last night something killed one of their chickens in their fenced in back yard. I have told Mr. P that coyotes have been spotted around town. I mean if Los Angeles can have a coyote problem then surely Fairhope can have one too.
    He told me a coyote couldn’t get in our fence. It is 6 feet high. I told him they could. He said they are getting under someone’s fence and we don’t have anything to worry about. I told him if my dog got eaten by a coyote he wouldn’t want to deal with me. He said Lulabelle could kill the coyote. I said Lulabelle has no “street cred”. He argued that she came from a shelter she had street cred. I argued a coyote is a wild animal and a scavenger, Lulabelle would get hurt.
    I noticed that he got up at 5 am this morning and went out with both dogs and let me sleep until 6:30. Smart Man.

    Liked by 9 people

  36. Kare, my adapter worked fine for the Christmas lights, but the (porch) light bulb never worked when it was then screwed into the adapter. And last time I took the adapter out after the end of the season, I put the bulb back into its regular slot in the porch light and, nothing. Put a new bulb in, nothing. No porch light.

    The porch light fixture is old, but one of the guys did get the porch light to finally work again here a few months ago so I’m not messing with it now, I’m just leaving it alone, thankful I have one again.

    I have a huge, sheltered front porch, I’m hoping when the house stuff is all DONE, that I can sit out there on a rocker and just enjoy.

    Liked by 2 people

  37. California Fish & Wildlife coyote guy said at the last meeting that a coyote doesn’t even need a running jump to get EASILY over a 6-foot fence. They’ve been known to get over 8-foot tall fences.

    And they also are very adept and agile and tunneling under fences, getting around them, finding ways in through nooks and crannies. They love chickens.

    The coyote researcher I interview frequently told me a few months ago — when I was doing a story on coyote-proofing your yard — that if there’s something in your yard a coyote wants, it will find a way in.

    Spiked vests, new fencing latest tools to protect pets from coyotes

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  38. “when it comes to stopping a coyote, no perimeter fencing or barrier is truly infallible.

    “Coyotes are just so adaptable and clever,” said Niahm Quinn, who is researching coyotes and wildlife conflicts in Southern California for the UC Cooperative Extension. “If they want something in your yard bad enough, they will likely get it.”

    Hoang Dinh, wildlife officer for the city of Los Angeles, cautions that walls and fences may provide a “false sense of security.” Hazelrig also has rescue donkeys on her property, animals that are supposed to be coyote deterrents, but they weren’t of much help either.

    A better solution to protecting small dogs, including from owls, hawks and other birds of prey, is a six-sided (including roof and floor) pet enclosure or kennel, Dinh said. …

    …. Coyote-resistant fences should be 8 feet tall with rollers on top for extra measure. The underground skirt also is essential, she said, though one also could pour a concrete foundation at the bottom.

    While the city of Los Angeles does allow 8-foot-tall fences in some zones, those fences and items such as coyote rollers, if they are on a shared property line, must be pre-approved by neighbors.

    Voigt said one set of rollers on a dividing fence will work for the neighbors on both sides.

    And the added challenge for homeowners is that none of it is cheap. Quinn suggested handy homeowners use PVC pipes instead as a do-it-yourself project.

    Beyond city codes, homeowners associations for condominium or town-house developments can add yet another strict layer of approvals.

    A year ago in Anaheim, a coyote jumped over a 6-foot-tall wall and mauled a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Honeybear to death in his own backyard. The owner told KCBS Channel 2 she wanted to install a coyote barrier around her wall after warnings about the animal went out in the neighborhood but the homeowners association wouldn’t allow it. …

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  39. Larger dogs can be at risk if there are 2 or more coyotes tag-teaming. I’ve talked to owners of large dogs who report several coyotes spreading out around them as they leash walk, it’s part of their stalking mode. Another friend from one of our sister churches told me her husband and son had taken their Aussie out for some off-leash play a couple years ago near a preserve area and before long several coyotes began circling & closing in on them. Very frightening, they made an escape and came home.

    A guy at the dog park — owner of Little Bruce, known at the park as “North Korea” as the dog is known for constantly provoking all the other dogs — said a coyote was coming into their yard and “playing” with his dog (they live near a ravine and may not have much of a perimeter fence line). He wondered if that was ok, they were so cute (it was a young/juvenile coyote). I said, uh, no, not a good idea. At all. Ever.

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  40. From another more recent story I wrote; a coyote expert had talked about hazing, making yourself “big,” screaming, etc.:
    _________________________________________________

    Resident Sue Morgan, however, said the effects of hazing have worn off on the coyotes that have followed her and her three dogs when they walk near the Chandler Preserve and golf course early in the mornings.

    “I don’t know what to do,” she said. “They don’t care if you’re ‘big’ or if you run after them or throw rocks at them anymore. I have three big dogs but it doesn’t make any difference. The coyotes are just getting bolder and bolder. What do we do?”

    Matt Whitcomb, who moved to Rolling Hills Estates with his family from Boston a year ago, said he has had a large coyote coming into his backyard, about 6 feet from his house, on several occasions. He’s worried about his two dogs and two cats after seeing a coyote try to carry off a large peacock from his yard one afternoon.

    “If anybody can tell me what to do right now, I’d appreciate it, so my cats and dogs don’t get eaten in the next few days,” he said. …
    ________________________________________________________

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  41. Coyotes can also climb trees (not easily, but to get food they will) and will use undergrowth to scale taller objects.

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  43. We have an eight foot deer fence around our five acres. We have a gate across the driveway that we leave open unless the mules are out. We have free ranging chickens, cats, turkeys, guinea fowl. We have goats and sheep. We have never had a coyote walk up the open driveway and feast on the buffet. We have had coyotes sit at the end of the driveway and howl. And leave their sign. We have had them circle our property, they even have a trodden path around.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. The problem with our coyotes is that they’ve been urbanized and habituated. They’ve quietly been living and reproducing among us in cities all across the country for a few decades now, each litter more and more acclimated to living next to people, staying out of sight and watching us, coming out only at night, learning our ways for many years — and now they’re often seen just trotting down the sidewalks mid-day in broad daylight. They’ve learned that we have a lot of food and that it’s safe to go get it.

    We are their only predator (via our cars, largely) but for the most part they’ve learned that we will do them no (real) harm.

    So the behavior of urban coyotes has evolved, they’re not really like their rural cousins so much anymore.

    And now cities are scrambling to try to figure out what to do, what’s legal to do, and what’s politically acceptable to do. Coyote advocates, if they believe cities are going to far with trapping, are ready to file the next lawsuit (which cities, especially smaller ones, simply can’t afford to fight).

    Here’s a story out of South Carolina that I saw last week that presents virtually a mirror image of our circumstances. The same story, playing out nearly everywhere.

    https://www.postandcourier.com/news/can-isle-of-palms-outsmart-its-wily-coyotes/article_0bc34e02-d46e-11e7-96da-935605310c62.html

    Liked by 1 person

  47. “I don’t know what to do,” she said. “They don’t care if you’re ‘big’ or if you run after them or throw rocks at them anymore. I have three big dogs but it doesn’t make any difference. The coyotes are just getting bolder and bolder. What do we do?””

    Phooey.
    I know what this Alaska Boy would do… My .357 would make short work of the vermin.
    Course the authorities might not like it.
    😀

    Liked by 7 people

  49. Thanks Janice.

    Believe me, MiM, we have a number of residents who are ready and willing to go that route (some quietly have) — but it is illegal to fire a gun in the city (although I still think it’s legal provided you’re on your own property and feel that there is a threat to you, your family or even your pets).

    Liked by 1 person

  51. Jumping ahead again.

    Chas – That was the problem I had with my MIL, that she wanted to be doing something, but there wasn’t much she could do. One day she found a Seek-a-Word puzzle book that she’d had, & started doing that. We kept her stocked up with those, & she enjoyed doing them. After a while, of course, she probably didn’t quite know what she was doing, & probably kept forgetting which word she was looking for, but it gave her a semblance of doing something.

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  52. Puzzles are good, Carol loves them (she buys the books, along with number challenge books) and so did my friend Norma. They also have puzzle apps on the iPad which Norma liked.

    OK, about to interview the vegan dog diet advocate/commissioner who has quite the background as a political aide (Lieberman, Kennedy, others) and screenwriter (Law & Order SUV, etc.).

    Liked by 1 person

  56. I just want to jump in before heading to bed and caution about the puzzles and word games. My precious father in law had Alzheimer’s. He was a CPA, owned an office products store and an accounting business. In the earlier days of the disease he would become frustrated with tasks put before him…the pressure of accomplishing certain tasks was overwhelming for him. He could never have focused upon a puzzle (which he and Mom had previously enjoyed). There was a moment when he shared with my husband of the pressure to do something he once had been capable of doing and was no longer capable….he was so torn up inside and very vulnerable. My husband had a heart to heart with his mother…she had no idea. It is so very difficult sometimes to know what to do…all we know is that our loved one is cherished and we want to be as gracious as we possibly can as we walk the path together….Continued prayers…..

    Liked by 3 people

  58. Good observation, Nancyjill. It would take knowing the person and then also watching and being sensitive enough to see whether something was helping or hurting. (I personally have a hard time with things like puzzles or putting things together, so I’d completely understand something like that being more frustrating than enjoyable!)

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  59. Well, I put undies in the dryer and went to get them out and found the door open and there were some in and some outside the dryer. So I am rewashing them. I have seen this happen once before. I had another load waiting so they are drying now. I moved the car up to block the door from being opened. Weird. Just weird. It must be a silly prank.

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