50 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-9-17”

  6. Good Morning Everyone.
    It snowed here last night. Big, fat, flakes. Mr. P woke me to walk outside and see it. My house looked rather pretty covered with snow. I went back to bed. He went walking in it to hear the crunch.
    It is starting to melt now and I am off to get ready for Black Family Christmas. I need to pick up my aunt at 11:30

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  7. Mumsee, Re” iPhone,” I just checked the dictionary to see if I was using the word “aghast” correctly. It took a few seconds. I would not have gone to the dictionary for that.
    It comes in handy.

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  8. Good cold morning.

    I’ve heard from good sources that there is big snow in Atlanta. That’s amazing considering the warmth of last week. The damage will soon enough be discovered upon our return.

    Now to go to Roscuro’s blog and enjoy advent!

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  9. Taking the last easy day for awhile, though we’re going to lunch with friends and picking up a tree so it won’t be that easy.

    I finished a book this morning, just did my Utmost Response and will now have coffee and finish a light edit of an old manuscript I’ve been working on for weeks. It needs to go to a new Navy wife so she can get a sense of the good, bad and ugly of the “Adventure/”

    I was so discombobulated yesterday that we went to a 3 o’clock showing of The Man Who Invented Christmas. Rated PG (finally!) and hilarious to us. I’m not sure if my husband laughed more about the foibles of the poor spouse, or me at recognizing all the issues involved in writing.

    The movie tells a fictionalized story of how Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. We really liked it.

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  10. That bird in the tree actually prefers to eat other birds. I believe it is a Cooper’s or sharp-shinned hawk (two nearly identical birds, impossible to distinguish which by that photo).

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  11. Janice, it snowed in Atlanta and you missed it? I heard the south was getting some dog-park-cold weather.

    Our temps will be in the low 80s this weekend, continuing to be (very) dry and desert-windy = fire weather. 😦 It is cold at night, though. Strange “Christmas” weather, even for us.

    We’re hoping for our marine layer to return next week — and just a little bit of rain might be nice, too, but there’s none in even our extended forecast. Sigh. I vaguely remember rain.

    I’ll be wrapping some gifts today, working some in the house & going to the screen shop to see about getting an estimate on putting in all new window screens. The ones I have were put in by me shortly after I moved here. Annie’s destroyed a couple of the front ones so I’ll have to probably get studier, metal mess ones.

    And I desperately need to get back to choosing paint colors. I think it’ll be adobe with cream trim and a dark accent color to use on the windows? The guy who’s supposed to be helping me is making me do all the work — and the color charts he sent me are not very user-friendly on the computer. I thought he’d be a little more proactive in the process — and, admittedly, I’ve been distracted with so many other things in the past few weeks, so I haven’t been as focused as I should have been.

    Carol is getting a visit today from her pastor and an elder from her LMS church (she’s a member but it’s been too far away for her to attend since she moved to Hollywood). She is still expecting her windfall pension back-log of money (next week) and has already spent all of it in her mind, she can think of little else right now. She wanted me to take her shopping for one or more of the electronic gadgets she wants that’s just being released and will be hard to find, so I suggested she just order them online. I will be so glad when she gets and spends all that money, frankly, I think it’s partly what has tipped her so off balance of late. Might as well just get it over with and be done with it. Once she’s broke again maybe she’ll mentally settle down. She’s also back to thinking some other residents where she lives are hacking into her phone (again).

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  13. Ooh, a move my cousin or my friend from down the street and I can go see, thanks for the thumbs up Michelle. I’d seen a preview for it somewhere but knew nothing about it.

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  15. I was so relieved–a movie I could take the Adorables to see!–except, it is more entertaining for writers than anyone else. I will probably take them to see The Star at some point. You and your cousin should enjoy it, DJ.

    Paint colors–drive around town and see what catches your eye. That would be my choice in how to do it.

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  16. Yes, I have been doing that for months (driving around looking at colors). Some that I like actually just won’t work that well on my house which is of a particular type, shall we say.

    Well, guess I’ll be taking in a return as part of my schedule today, the under-sink organizer I bought (supposed to fit and work “under any sink!”) doesn’t fit or work under my kitchen sink. The pipe configuration has a big horizontal pipe running right through everything.

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  17. Peter, not chorizo and egg, as those don’t sell. I make sausage and egg, with or without green chile. And tamales. I am there from 5:30 to 7:00. I have made enough this week to purchase 2 cords of wood.

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  18. That’s industrious, Rkessler!

    I shopped at Goodwill and found some perfect Baylor jackets for Christmas gifts and JOY kitchen potholders and towels and a cookbook of mug cakes that you make in the microwave. Unfortunately, I did not find any affordable care health insurance at Goodwill. I am shopping for that now. Bah.Humbug.Bah. Waiting until the last minute to spoil my holidays.

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  19. Art, Wesley, and I enjoyed Roscuro’s Advent music and blog post.

    A number of Wesley’s first semester students have registered to take the next semester class from him. I think they like him. That is proud mama talk. ❤

    My friend, Karen, continues to be in the hospital. She sounds better today. Thankful for that since she was in seriously bad health when she went in.

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  20. Janice, I have, again, joined the ranks of the uninsured. I could not find any affordable health insurance. We kept Miguel covered under COBRA, but with me not working full time, we just can’t afford it.

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  21. 😦 Prayers, rkessler. A co-worker who took a buy-out from us is now on Cobra but she has no housing costs so is able to afford it for now, thankfully. She’s diabetic so needs a lot of doctor visits, meds, etc.

    She’s retraining as a paralegal so hopefully after that she’ll be earning money again in the workplace.

    The medicare broker and I are playing phone tag today. Our work plans have just gotten worse and worse in the past few years, reflecting the overall health insurance market, apparently.

    I bought the last Christmas gift I needed to get today, so I’m done, I think. 🙂

    It’s ridiculously hot out there today, 84. We seem to be repeating summer. 😦 Of course, this is why my parents so eagerly moved from the Midwest to California, but even for them this might have been a bit “much” in December.

    Carol, the transplanted New Yorker, loves it though. Go figure.

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  25. On the way down to the beach my aunt and I stopped at one of my favorite stores. They had a large sale going and I am going to be sharing a hotel room in February, so I found a pajama bottom and matching top that would be $20, so I decided to buy it. While my aunt was looking by herself she found the pajama bottoms, so I took her back and got her the matching top. She bought some other items as we were checking out she told the clerk to take the ones behind the counter (mine) and put them on her bill. I told her she didn’t have to do that, I would get them. She told me no. When I hugged her and thanked her, she told me she loved me.
    She is the only person left in my life who does anything like this. It’s just pajamas, but it’s so much more.

    (Yes, my husband buys me things or tells me to get what I want, but this is different)

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  28. I just got back from Target, I realized the boxed lights I had in the garage were indoor only after I started putting them up already. So, off to get some outdoor lights. Ran into a dog park regular (he’s also facing a layoff now, from DirectTV) so we talked for quite a while, he said everyone wondered what happened to me today as I missed the park visit.

    And I chatted with a woman in the decoration section for several minutes — she was buying ornaments for a friend whose house burned (not in these fires, it was more of an individual house fire). The friend was too depressed to shop, so this woman decided (since the woman does apparently have a tree w/only candy canes on it) to buy her some basic ornaments to use. The woman told me it wasn’t a big deal and her friend really didn’t care all that much, but I told her no, it was a very sweet gesture and one that she’d remember forever. 🙂

    I wrapped the Angel Tree gifts late this afternoon (using the garage as my wrapping station this year, it’s working great!); the tag they put on the gifts when they are delivered is from the incarcerated parent, which is so cool — it’s not charity, not from “a church,” but it’s from their parent. Prison Fellowship is a very good ministry in so many ways. Very glad our church participates every year.

    I do love Christmas. Even though it’s (cough, cough) 84 degrees! Grumble.

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  32. Morning! That photo up there does take one by surprise upon opening this page!!
    We are experiencing mild temps in the 50’s with no moisture this coming week…I’m dreaming of a White Christmas….I find myself a tad bit envious of ya’ll who are getting my snow!! ⛄️

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  33. My son is going to Atlanta for his job. He says the weather there is supposed to be the same as here, only a few degrees different. In fact, there are supposed to be a couple of days when it will be warmer in NE Missouri than Atlanta! That doesn’t happen often.

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  35. I usually pack too many long sleeves and full length pants. I got wise and packed more short sleeves and shorts. Seems I just haven’t traveled enough to get the packing done appropriately. Mother Nature is getting to be a tricky old lady at my frozen expense.

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  36. So, who won? 🙂

    30 degrees here; Mr. Fit is back, the heater is running and I have to find something warm to wear for church–which starts out cold and ends up being hot by the time I’m playing my clarinet in the choir loft at 11!

    Peel off!

    Wait. Is that an Army term? 🙂

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  37. Nancyjill (8:53), it could be worse. We’re headed back up to a dry 83 degrees today, on Dec. 10. Ridiculous.

    At least it’s cool at night. Heaters in the morning, air conditioning by noon.

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  39. Coyotes in Virginia

    https://pilotonline.com/news/local/hundreds-of-urban-coyotes-setting-up-house-in-hampton-roads/article_d674c06e-705b-5824-bbe2-f8239bdaec73.html
    __________________________

    No one knows how many coyotes live in the urban jungles of Hampton Roads, but it’s probably more than you’d think.

    Wait. Maybe you didn’t know we have coyotes at all – much less city ones?

    Lots of folks are surprised.

    “They’re not native to Virginia,” said Mike Fies, a biologist specializing in fur-bearing animals for the state game department. “They’re creatures of the Midwest and Southern plains.”

    Not anymore. Coyotes have been moving eastward – where the living is easier – for at least 100 years.

    “One segment of society values them about the same as a cockroach,” Fies said, “and other people get great enjoyment out of just observing one.”

    To reach our region, coyotes migrated along two main routes. One path hooked up into Canada and down the Northeast corridor. The other spread across the south, stalling at the Mississippi River before finally making the leap, most likely during a bitter winter ice-over.

    Those two groups met in the middle: Virginia. …
    __________________________________

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  42. I am currently planning my Mother’s Day present. All my children and grandchildren at Lake Lure for a week next summer
    I can’t think of anything I would like more. Now to convince my husband that is what he wants for Fathers Day. (Since we may be getting it for each other. )

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  44. Nancy. It’s a three hour trip from Lake Lure to Greensboro.
    We would be happy to see them but I suspect Mr. P who doesn’t know me, will want to commit a day to a visit.
    With some planning, we could arrange to meet for lunch at Cracker Barrel in Hickory.

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