52 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-22-17”

  3. Happy Three Days Before Christmas!

    We will see the knee doctor in a bit to get Art’s knee brace. Not sure if he will get it today or just get measured for it.

    I talked to Karen yesterday and she did not remember what I had told her about Art. Not a good sign. She should still be in the hospital. She is not getting enough oxygen even though she is on oxygen. Sometimes she gets little holes in her tubing because of the cats. She is realizing she may have to get rid of their cats which is her main joy in life. It’s a very difficult situation.

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  6. Advent posting for the 22: https://travellerunknownblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/o-come-divine-messiah-advent-december-22/

    The hordes have descended. When they first came, there was chaos as the three younger ones got out their energy and expressed their excitement at being at their grandparents’ place. They are a joy and amusement. For last night’s supper, we had ham as one of the features of the meal. Third nephew (6), always skeptical about his food, inquired what ham was from, and Second nephew (10) replied briefly and laconically, “Pig.” Fourth nephew (4) exclaimed, “Oh, poor pig” in a somewhat ironic tone and then proceed to enact a brief drama in which he played the parts of both gleeful butcher and scared and squealing pig with great gusto. He’s a real ham 😉

    Peter, in reply to your question from last evening, portability of my laptop is an absolute necessity. We are frequently required to do in class work, both researching and posting work online, but most of the classrooms have not been retrofitted for the electronic age. Besides, as I learned from my time in West Africa, a good battery can help one make up for a poor electricity supply – I could still communicate with the outside world even when the electricity wasn’t functioning because I had a charged battery and the cell phone towers were working.

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  7. Geraldo Rivera just said that he expected Nikki Haley to be in the White House someday.
    That would mean that we would have a Tiger in the White House.
    A Clemson girl. But even that would be better than the Ivy Leaguers we have had.

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  9. 27 degrees in California but I have a cat on my lap blocking the keyboard, so I’m relatively warm . . .

    No sleep last night remembering all the things I haven’t done, cards I haven’t written, posts I haven’t invented, you get the picture.

    We’re taking at least two Adorables to see The Star late this afternoon. Do you think popcorn can count as dinner?

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  10. We are at the newly opened Emory Sports Medicine Center. It is a very large facility. A basketball court is on one side, and I heard that the Atlanta Hawks play here. Doesn’t that make great sense? If anyone gets hurt then they are immediately at the doctor’s office. Most of the patients I have noticed are young males with sports injuries. I told Art he is here for sking down the stairs, in his free style sport.

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  11. Peter?

    Even a Clemson girl? But I’ll admit that I’m impressed by Nikki Haley.
    Last I heard, her husband was a captain in the Army. Don’t know what he’s doing now.

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  14. That is a very inviting shop(?) I’d browse and buy there in a heartbeat, no matter what they were selling 🙂

    I was up with a start, realizing I needed to get the trash cans wheeled down to the curb. There’s something to be said about the division of home labor you all have with families. If I could only train the border collies better …

    My friend and former roomie from the Valley is coming by this afternoon, we’re usually out and about before sitting around here until midnight or so talking, talking, talking. She’s a night owl. I am, too, but not as serious a night owl as she is.

    And this is the second morning in a row I got up to my phone not coming on, just showing a drained battery (after charging all night long). It came back to live yesterday but so far not today … I may be in search of a phone very soon. It’s the only phone I have now since ditching the land line.

    Ah. Just unplugged it and plugged it back in, looks like it’s restarting. Hopefully it’ll be good for another day.

    Meanwhile, I still have a couple cards to mail & my friend’s gift to wrap.

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  16. Good luck with the knee brace for that stair-skiing daredevil Art — and I’m sorry about your friend being so sick at Christmas. That’s always hard. Prayers. Maybe some of those nail tips for the cats? I know, easier said than done, I wouldn’t want to be the one trying to put those on a cat.

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  17. Last Christmas (well, barely post-Christmas that year) when my friend came over, my main bathroom was down to the studs (we had to use the tiny one in the spare bedroom) and the place was in shambles.

    Our outing, aside from dinner, was to stop by the plumbing supply store so I could pick up the bathtub drain kit that had just come in. And, as it turned out, I was coming down with the flu, I was so tired and out of it. My friend left by 10 p.m. and I was out sick for an entire week after that. I tried getting a flu shot at my doctor’s this year but he was out of them and I never did get over to a drug store to get one. So, fingers crossed I don’t get it this year again, that was pretty miserable!

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  19. First day of winter break, nice to rlax at homeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. But I think I’m going to hav to go out shopping to get a new keyboard, because th “e” keps sticking and sometimes I get no lettr “e” at all and other tims it just kps typing a long string of thm.

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  20. Well, that was nice. It turned out my husband had two spare keyboards he had bought a while back, because they boys seemed to be wearing out keyboards quickly. It is so nice to have a working “e” key. I read a book recently where the narrator decided to write one paragraph with no e’s at all, and he managed it without sounding awkward. So I’m sure I could do it if I had to. But I don’t have to, and I’d rather turn my creativity in other directions. Such as writing a blog post on the books I read this year, using a particular reading challenge. I’ve read books in all but four of the categories, and three of those I have started but not finished. I got the last one, an 800+ page book, from the library, but haven’t started it yet. I figure with a week off I’ll get it done by the end of the month. I will have read about 115 books total (lots more than the reading challenge calls for, but I just like reading).

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  21. I tried to sleep in but Amos was having none of it. Wake up Mama I need to go outside.
    Several of my agents have had to put down their dogs recently. My heart hurts for them.

    I am shuffling around the house semi getting ready for Christmas. I do not remember ever being this un-organized and ill prepared. Oh well, Monday will be Christmas whether or not I am prepared and food will be on the table. BG asked Mr. P to make Mac and Cheese. It isn’t an olive branch but I will take it.

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  22. Thank you for the birthday wishes yesterday. It was the day for our annual trek to NYC. This year (for the first time), we went on a bus trip put on by the director of the Maryland State Boy Choir. He is a great guy, lots of fun, and there were many people I know, including DIL and good friend who always goes with us. Unfortunately, we had to drive an hour each way to get to where the bus launched, so we left home before 6:00 a.m. and got home after 1:00 a.m.

    I wanted to see the Dakota (the co-op where John Lennon lived and in front of which he was killed) because I recently read a book about it (“Life at the Dakota,” which I highly recommend). Then we toured The Cathedral of St. John, The Divine, which was amazing. Back down to Rockefeller Center to have a hot drink and watch the skaters. Then to St. Thomas for a concert by their Boy Choir. I did have chocolate mousse cake for dessert and it was so rich that I couldn’t finish it – which is a FIRST for me! It was a great day, and the reason I didn’t reply to your lovely wishes yesterday.

    God Bless Us, Everyone.

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  23. DJ, no reason to merely keep your fingers crossed. It’s still worthwhile to get the flu shot and they’re sitll available. Flu can peak anywhere from December to February and still be around for a couple months after that.

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  26. You all know that I have been happy the last 6 months with work–even though the last month was exhausting. You know that I also work with a real estate team out of Charlotte. Yesterday the head of the team taught at my office because she has family in the area and they are hear for Christmas and a wedding.
    There is a group of people nationwide but within the company who challenged each other to go places that do lay away and pay off strangers lay aways for Christmas. A random act of kindness.
    So what did she do yesterday? She paid off all the lay aways at the local Sears.
    She said it wasn’t an easy thing to do. Target and Toy R Us will not let you do it and Sears was a little skeptical.

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  28. I am givng thanks for some wonderful gifts, financial that have come to my account. It is truly humbling and amazing to see God’s care. I don’t know how to express it, but who am I that He, through others, should show me such abundant care? My friend, head of missions committee, said that one of the elders was concerned about my support and she told him, “God always takes care of Jo.” I have that ringing in my head as I prepare to leave.

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  30. I have heard that this year’s flu shot is only about 10% effective (which probably means it isn’t effective at all). I decided many years ago that I wouldn’t put those chemicals in my body and waste my money, since I only got the flu about once every ten years, even without the shot, and I have no interest in subjecting my body to ten flu shots for one time I need it, especially since it might or might not help the one time I need it! That’s my personal take on the matter.

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  31. Kim, if one is trying to pay off strangers’ layaways, then it seems like it might be best to talk to the store manager about one’s intention, and let him explain to layaway.

    That really is a thoughtful thing to do, though, partly because people who put stuff on layaway are likely to have limited funds. I myself have only used layaway once, more than 30 years ago, when Kmart had a watch I loved for $40. I was working for minimum wage at McDonald’s ($3.35/ hour) and they weren’t giving me many hours. I was paying rent to my mom but otherwise saving just about every dime I earned so that I could buy a car and get a better job. But I needed a watch and fell in love with that one, and so I splurged and bought it on layaway.

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  32. WSJ says if one has a flu shot this year, one is “60%” less likely to get sick based on the virus going around vs. what’s in the shots.

    They never can get a 100% target, of course, though they are working on a universal formula. But then, of course, the flu will mutate again …

    I’ve not typically gotten the shots (only rarely & sporadically have I gotten one, either I was at the doctor when they offered it or it was on a whim when I saw them at the CVS). I rarely get the flu even without the shots. But I’ve had it in two out of the last 3 years (no shots those years) so I think my immune system may not be what it once was. And they’re free under most insurance plans.

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  33. I hear you about the flu shot, Cheryl. I only piped up because DJ sounded to me as if she thought she had missed the boat. If you intended to get the shot before, there’s no reason not to do it now.

    I’m classified high-risk for complications, so I have had the flu shot every year for the past 20 years. I’ve never had influenza as far as I know. Whether it’s the shots, good hygiene, a healthy immune system, good luck, or God’s grace I’ll never know.

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  35. Behind again, but wanna jump in to reply to the comments about Assembly of God churches.

    Please don’t judge all A/G churches on one or two. There are some that are very active in the typical Pentecostal practices that can be kinda crazy. My former pastor’s wife acknowledged that some churches went off on unbiblical, weird tangents. Some, like the one I attended for over 20 years, have occasional prophesying & speaking in tongues, but were done in a good order, not chaotically, & we were urged to always weigh what we heard against scripture.

    Now there are a lot of Assembly of God churches like my current church, which don’t emphasize those gifts very much, & you could attend for a while without even realizing we are Pentecostal.

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  37. Kizzie, I once attended a Pentecostal Church. It seemed that Sunday, there happened to be ‘manifestations’, though the people I attended with said that was not usual. I talked later to the pastor’s wife, and she identified a few things in the ‘manifestations’ that were not sound Biblically and indicated that the members who had said them would be instructed. So I know not all Pentecostal denominations are off the deep end.

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  38. Janice – Yesterday you mentioned about Art’s arthritis. Hubby had arthritis, too, which caused him pain, especially in his knees. He also had a calcium deposit on one of his lower vertebra that would bother him on & off.

    You’ve been mentioning being on a diet. I wish you & Art success, but may I also offer some advice? Diets tend to be successful for a period of time, but the greater majority of people will end up putting the weight back on, & even more so. That has happened to Biggest Loser contestants, most of them, I think. (I didn’t watch the show, but I read about this.) I tend to think of it like stretching a rubber band. One can stretch it only so far before it either breaks or snaps back.

    Those who successfully lose weight & keep it off, or most of it, tend to make sure that they can live with, & be contented with, the changes they’ve made in their diet. Some people allow themselves a certain amount of goodies, if they can do so without over-indulging.

    Another tactic that can be successful, is making small changes over a period of time, getting used to one or two changes before introducing another. I have been doing this, & have lost about 15 pounds over the past couple or so years. It has been slow, but my changed habits have become a comfortable part of me, not something I continue to struggle with.

    I realize that maybe you don’t want to do it too slowly, if this is for Art’s health, but I hope some of what I’ve written has been helpful, or given you some ideas.

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  39. Cheryl – You’ve said that your BIL died of a pulmonary embolism, I believe. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that that turned out to be the primary cause of Hubby’s death, too. But it was also connected to his other health issues. Ultimately, although the cancer didn’t directly kill him, it led to the bleeding in his bladder, which led to his hospitalization, which led to. . .etc.

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  40. If you’re not out in public a lot, you can probably duck the shot, but that’s not Donna. My EMT told me to get one, so I did, for probably the fourth time in my life. My boss asked me to get one one year because her husband’s health was frail and she couldn’t risk the flu.

    People are sick all around me this year– which obviously is a sign of the October stressors as well, but I’m doing fine.

    I’m liking the idea of popcorn for dinner. My husband just reminded me I am the grandmother and can anything I want.

    We’ll see. We still don’t know who is coming yet. 🙂

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  41. Grandmother’s also get to feed grand children whatever they want….like ice cream for breakfast. “It has milk in it”. Of course I still wish I had video of that 80 year old grandmother dancing with the 20 year old granddaughter in the rain last Sunday.

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  42. Michelle, for many years I was out in public daily–where I worked in Chicago I had two fellow workers who considered it a virtue never to call in sick. One, my boss for a couple of years, pretty much never got sick, but the other would come in when she was very clearly sick, coughing and watery eyes and a runny nose. So stuff would go around the office. But I had quite a few times when I was the only one who didn’t get sick. Initially I had a few years that I just didn’t bother to get the shot, and eventually I realized it made no difference–I didn’t need it. My husband had bronchitis last week, and I’m pretty sure he had the flu at the same time. But I had a sore throat for a couple of days and then some drainage, and that was it for me. It’s a blessing for both of us, because I can care for him without worrying about getting sick myself.

    It may be in this region that the flu shot is only 10% effective. It’s my daughter who is a caregiver who reported that, and we have many people sick in this state.

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  43. I just read an article (from World, I believe) where it said no one knows how effective the flu shot will be in the US yet. Those stats were from Australia.

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  44. I have never gotten the flu shot, and, like Cheryl, rarely if ever get it. I teach at a high school and probably get exposed as much as anyone else, but I am blessed with a strong immune system. Plus I drink a lot of helpful fluids year round, so my system get flushed frequently. Probably all the exposure has made me less likely to get the flu.

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  45. I have rarely gotten the flu either, as I said — but i have had it twice in the last 3 years which makes me think our immune systems, as we age, can be not quite as effective as they once were.

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  47. Peter, that is actually one reason I stopped getting shots–when I was young I read that not getting them, and letting one’s immune system handle it, was healthier for most young and middle-aged people. If your immune system isn’t doing the job and you think you can benefit from the shot, then get it–but it’s healthier not to if you can avoid it. That made sense to me, and I’d already noticed I rarely got the flu. So it has probably been 20 years since I got a flu shot; I had the flu for sure about eight years ago and about 25 years ago, but other than that I have had minor illnesses that may or may not have been the flu two or three times (including about three years ago).

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  48. Did you know that the California Highway Patrol has Clydesdales? and they brought them to
    Cornish Christmas tonight They even had wreaths of Christmas lights around their necks. One of them was rather skittish and not liking the crowds.

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