62 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-28-18”

  1. Good morning almost everyone.
    This is the last day in February. So I can cut the grass tomorrow. It needs it.
    I got this from ATT online.

    “A woman in Nevada who reportedly carried a pickaxe as she shouted threats at a playground where hundreds of children were playing has been arrested.”

    They need to make school playgrounds ax free zones.
    That would take care of things like that.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. We were talking about colleges yesterday.
    While having breakfast, I recalled this event.
    It was in the mid 90’s, I don’t remember the date, thought I could look it up.
    Chuck was working in North Charleston as a chemical engineer. And working on a MBA from The Citadel.
    Linda took classes from the College of Charleston and graduated with a major in history..
    We went to her graduation. I saw something I have never heard of before or after. f

    During the ceremony, a lady in a wheelchair was pushed across the stage. She had earned a degree.
    At that time, they announced that the caregiver had assisted her, taking her to class, helping her with her studies, etc. for all of her college experience.
    So. They gave the caregiver an honorary Bachelor’s Degree.
    Everyone cheered.

    I have never heard on an honorary Bachelor’s Degree. I thought later that I should have contacted Paul Harvey. He liked to tell such things in a program he called “The Rest of the Story.”

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  4. Cute goats, RKessler! It was a rainy drive to the office after that most beautiful day yesterday. Art said he thinks that was the only full day of sun we have had in February. I have much to catch up on since I took yesterday off. Too much for one person!

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  5. Chas, for several years two old ladies used to come to my college employee dining room daily. The employees would even give them more food than they paid for, knowing they would take it home and eat it. It was a black lady pushing a white lady, and the black lady was nearly bald and looked just about as old as the lady she was pushing.

    One day the student newspaper ran their story, and I was happy to get to read it.

    The white lady had been a young professor at the school, and the black lady then a teenager in poverty who wanted to attend Bible college, but couldn’t afford it. So the professor paid her way, in an era that probably didn’t have a lot of black kids attending Bible college. I don’t remember how much these ladies stayed in touch when both were young women, but in their old age they were living together and the younger was caring for the elder, feeding her, putting her back in bed when she fell out, pushing her wheelchair. Even before knowing their story, it was a parable just to watch them. They lived a few blocks from the school, so you would see the two old ladies coming, one pushing the other’s wheelchair, the rider hunched over and probably feeling every bump in the sidewalk–but what a picture of Christ’s love, both directions, in that friendship!

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  7. I had an interesting conversation Monday. A woman called me from another state about one of my listings. In asking about the listing she mentioned that they were a biracial family. She asked if that would be a problem. I was a little taken aback. Finally I replied that even though it’s in Alabama, I just don’t think people give much thought to things like that anymore.

    Am I wrong? Am I right?

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  8. Babies!

    One of our reporters (who is in her 30s but has more of a conservative bent) is leaving us to take a job at the Tennesseean in Nashville. She’s originally from Maryland, so it also puts her closer to her family.

    But she mentioned having lived for a few years also in North Carolina and made the comment that she felt it was “racist” in her experience (she’s white) — I didn’t quiz her any more about it, but I’m thinking she meant she noticed race-based actions or even subtle comments more there than she did on the east or west coasts. ?

    I do think many of us raised on the coasts might be more accustomed to racial equality/integration than in some other areas? Biracial families are not uncommon at all here, we have a few in our congregation.

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  9. During that same conversation, one of our black interns mentioned he’d been hassled by a white officer when he was in Nashville working on a story for a fellowship he had. Said it took him aback, he’s from California and it was a new experience for him, but he felt it very definitely had racial undertones. (He’s a very friendly, go-along type guy, girlfriend I think is white or Asian, so he’s not one to easily take or assume race-based offense, I wouldn’t think.)

    At any rate, the whole discussion arose when someone asked if Nashville was very “diverse” (I think the answer was no).

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  10. Morning! Skipping Zumba today but will get in my walk sometime today….even though it is going be windy and cool! Those are some cute kids up there!!! 🐐
    How our family will be treated has been an important factor for us when deciding where to live. Paul once had an interview in Oregon and it was a question he asked the interviewer….he was told that it could be a problem in that region of Oregon…the job offer was declined.
    While driving from FL to CO 32 years ago, we encountered a tense situation in Louisiana at a steakhouse….our waitress refused to serve us and the manager had to take over. The family seated next to us was African American….their little girl kept yelling “mama, why does that white family have black baby” everyone kept staring at us…the mother kept telling her little girl to hush…she wouldn’t….we decided to leave….

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  11. DJ, I think there are “levels” of diversity. While I think the South has progressed quite a lot, it isn’t to the level other areas might be and we have to accept that and keep moving along. It isn’t something that can be forced on anyone.
    I have to talk to my agents about Fair Housing and discrimination. You CANNOT discriminate against anyone. The only think you need to know about anyone looking to buy a home is, “Is their money green?”
    When I first got into real estate I think I was “shopped” by HUD. A woman called me from Oregon, eventually she stated she was black, after a while she asked me not to show her houses in the ghetto. I recommended she speak with family who lived in the area about where she should look. I had also told her about home in my own neighborhood. The next time I made a follow up call the number was disconnected.
    I have laughed and told my agents that the only time I would discriminate is if I were renting a house and two gay men wanted to rent it. They look at me funny and I tell them that the guys would fix up my house, paint, decorate, plant flowers, and it would be worth more once they left than when they moved in. I am not saying that as much anymore. 😉

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  12. DJ, Nashville is the second-largest city in the world for Kurdish people (the most populous within the US, in other words). When I had foster kids, mailings came home from school in several languages. Every neighborhood has white people, black people, Kurdish people, and often some other races. Is it mixed the way Chicago is mixed, no–but neither is it segregated the way Chicago is segregated. When I had black foster kids for three or four days, I was in the backyard with them when two neighbors from down the street came together to meet them–an old white lady and a middle-aged black lady. I knew both women already, had already been in both of their homes. Of course, I found out through a guy I dated a couple of times that the Wal-Mart in walking distance from my home was known as “the Hispanic Wal-Mart,” which I suppose explains why it had an entire aisle of Mexican food . . . but it was extremely diverse in clientele.

    Indiana is pretty close to lily white, at least the places I shop–but I hear we are actually very mixed, too, in terms of who attends the public schools. (A brother-in-law taught at one until he retired two or three years ago.) I guess it really depends on what your point of comparison is, and also where you go, but I knew a good number of people from other races in Nashville, and interacted with them in my neighborhood, my church, when shopping, and places I volunteered.

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  13. Kim, as others have insinuated, it depends on where you are. I can’t speak for southern Alabama. In Virginia, it wouldn’t have mattered, We only knew the neighbors next door and across the street. In Hendersonville, whoever could afford the houses were welcome to the community. I don’t know about Greensboro. I only know the people across the street. I suspect anyone who kept the property looking nice will be welcome in the neighborhood.

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  14. Kim, her asking if it was okay for a biracial family might indicate that they are having problems where they are and want assurance, if they move to your area, will they fit in. Not necessarily a comment on your area at all.

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  16. Window crew is here and working, I’m shut in the back of the house w/the animals to stay out of their way. I’m staying home sick, texted my boss who didn’t argue after seeing my sniffly, sneezing state yesterday.

    Kim: They said they’d take the wood (?) valances down “if they had time” today — I can always put them back up (I’ll keep them for now) but I think I’m really going to love it with those being GONE and the original, wide craftsman-style window moldings more visible.

    I’m still sneezing and stuffed up. but am going through some things in the back room off the kitchen. I may keep the roll top desk but lose the separate book shelf unit that sits on top of it, along with the corner ‘computer desk with tall bookshelves on top of that. I may replace the desk with something different/older/smaller some day but for now it might make sense to keep at least the desk?

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  17. Friend will be the business reporter which is a pretty huge assignment for her as Nashville apparently is going through a big boom (with many Californians headed that way, too — our former senior editor is now editor of the Tenesseean so he’s actually be a great contact for our people who are interested in jobs there). My city editor spent some time there recently and said cranes are all over the downtown area & traffic seems to be main problem. Friend will be living with her cat in an apartment in one of the suburbs, can’t remember the name — not Franklin, though, she said that’s the rich part of town (our former editor is there and apparently has a mansion of sorts). I’m sure she’ll appreciate a lower (hopefully) cost of living there and maybe a higher salary to boot. I’m excited for her.

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  18. One of the things I enjoy about my children living in larger cities than I do, is that they are more exposed to others with different racial backgrounds. That is true of those who now live south of Nashville.

    One of my grandsons has a friend whose parents were from India. As my daughter was talking about a birthday invitation to a party for him, she mentioned how sad she was that it seemed to be quite difficult to get fellow students out to a birthday party for her children. The Indian women remarked that she thought it was because they were Indian. Well, my daughter and her husband are not Indian, but had the same issue. Clearly it was based on something else.

    No one ever knows what their neighbors will be like unless you have time to really spend in a neighborhood.

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  19. As far as college goes, I was the first to go to an actual college, as opposed to a Vocational School. My parents had never stepped foot on campus with me or helped me except for my living at home. That was a big help, of course.

    My daughter never let the reputation of her college choice as a party school keep her from going to the best place for her.

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  20. I hired a girl to be a friend to daughter. Friend comes to pick up daughter, takes her to her house. They bake cookies, watch movies, color. A couple of weeks ago, daughter decided to get her hair cut, it is below her waist and she is very vain about her hair. Friend made the appointment which is for this afternoon. Last week, daughter decided she did not want to see friend again, something about not being allowed to bring her color pages home yet. If I take daughter to her haircut, she will say I am trying to control her and refuse to cooperate. The current plan is to take daughter to friend’s house, who will then escort her to the hair cut place where it will be a wonderful idea. We will see. I am optimistic.

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  22. Roscuro,

    Obviously, ill gotten gains are not what I am talking about. Different people have different gifts and different talents. Just because a person is able to make money does not mean he is doing it illegally or unethically. The ability to take an idea and turn it into a profit is simply the use of one’s resources and abilities, in many cases. It has nothing to do with taking advantage of others. A person who offers a job to somebody can have that offer declined. Then he may raise the amount he is offering. But if a person agrees to work for a wage, why should the employer get in trouble for paying it and not more. Makes no sense to me.

    I am glad there are people who can do that. They are often quite generous with their monies, though it is none of my business if they are or are not. That is between them and the One Who gave them the ability. If they squander it, He will let them know what He thinks. If they share it, He will let them know what He thinks. If they hoard it, He will let them know what He thinks. If the person is a believer and I have access to them, I would encourage them to be generous but not to the point they can no longer feed thousands if that is what God has called them to do. By running a sound business, there is a continual stream of money to be given. If it is all given away at the start, which some may be called to do, it is no longer bringing in the money to feed the thousands. Who am I to determine what somebody else is to do with his money. Obviously, God has not entrusted me with a lot, probably because I would give it all away rather than make it work for many.

    I have known people with lots of money and I have known people with little money. Rarely do the rich begrudge the poor their poverty but often the poor begrudge the rich their wealth. Often to the rich help the poor in various way, rarely do the poor do much for the rich though they could and many do.

    I have heard many poor people bewail their situation. I have heard rich people bewail theirs. Millionaires wondering how they are going to pay their property tax for example. Let us be content where God has placed us and not worry about what others do with their toys.

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  23. I don’t want to have to buy a new desk after all this, makes sense to keep the one I have (downsized sans the book shelves) for now. I need a desk. 🙂 Don’t worry, plenty of stuff flying off to the universe in all of this.

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  25. I listen to Eric Metaxas’ podcast every day while I drive around town. I usually skip the political ones. His show is “about everything,” and this morning I got to hear Ken Fish of Kingdom Ministries talking about the end times.

    I usually avoid end times talk as well, but I think Ken Fish is so interesting, I’m always happy to hear what he has to say–usually stories of God at work around the world in fantastic ways.

    In this episode, about 40 minutes long if you skip through the commercials (like I do), Fish discussed the end times in a way I’d never heard before–looking at dates through Daniel.

    Many have done that, but in this case, he pegged the year of “abomination of desolation” to 706–which is when the caliph began to build the dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

    Fascinating, whether you agree with him or not.

    https://player.fm/series/the-eric-metaxas-show-1816939/ken-fish-plxtl7Zs1R7Br7vz

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  26. I’m laughing. We’re going to Poland this spring and per my Rick Steves’ guidebook, I mentioned his name while reserving an apartment. The confirmed reservation came back in Rick Steves’ name!

    They’ll also be looking for him at the airport.

    I’ve just attempted to clarify . . . but I may need to take a cutout with me, or at least his photo. LOL

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  27. Re: the poor helping the rich from mumsee’s 12:36.

    Ruidoso has a high seasonal population, as wealthy Texans try to escape the heat in the summer. One day I was in Walmart, and the lady in front of me was one of the seasonal Texans. She had a cart full of this and that for the house, humming bird feeders, annuals, etc. When she went to check out, she pulled out $200 and then was going to put the rest on her credit card. Well, the cashier pushed the wrong button, so it wouldn’t let her pay with the card. They were going to have to cancel the transaction and ring it all up again. The line was very long. I offered to pay to $16 difference in cash, the help us all. The woman was so shocked and surprised. She said, with tears in her eyes, that was the nicest thing anyone ever did for her. It was actually somewhat of a selfish act, as I was in a hurry. I told her not to thank me, but to thank God, as He is the one who provides for me. In the end, I felt sad that a gift of $16 from a stranger was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her.

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  30. RKessler, I suspect that is the correct response rather than, “She drove up in a high value car so she has plenty of money and ought to be paying for my groceries, she can just sit there and be embarassed. Serves her right for not buying me a big screen tv….”

    I will pray that God uses that moment in the lives of her, you, and the folk who saw it. He will!

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  31. My niece is a veterinarian in a town not far from Jackson Hole, WY. She loves wealthy people in her community because they pamper their pets and use her services as a result.

    That should be the benefit of wealth–spreading it through your community through hiring local people and services. Not with a lady of the manor attitude, but with one of “we’re in this together.”

    I’ve told myself that for the good of my community, I need to use my local bookstore, rather than Amazon. It’s worth it to pay an extra dollar or two to have a bookstore in my town. If I’m in a hurry, however, or its a hard to get book, it’s back to the Dark Lord.

    It makes me wonder if I should buy my Bible study books there, just to get them in stock. Something to consider . . .

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  32. As mentioned, I have decided to give up on line buying for the foreseeable future. Though I did buy a bit from CBD. School books and a special edition I life of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy. But then, I don’t have a local bookstore as far as I know, within a hundred miles. It is okay, I have plenty of books.

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  34. oh, the valances, yes, I can toss them, you’re right. Thinking of ordering another city bulky item pickup this week anyway (though someone may take them, they’re wood I think and not bad if you’re a valance type person). I’m 99% sure I’ll like the living room better without them. Hope these guys can take them down, they’re on lunch break now, still more window work to do.

    And I’m still sneezing and blowing my poor sore nose.

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  35. Guy said they could maybe take one down but not all as it’s not part of their job, understandably. But even with one down it will give me an idea of how it will look. He said their wood, ‘crown molding’ quality so someone would probably just snatch them up from the curb if I put them out there. Wish I had time to sell stuff but …

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  37. I would happily patronize local bookstores except (1) there isn’t a bookstore of any kind in my town; (2) the bookstores I know about in the bigger city are all chain bookstores anyway; (3) in general anything they have that I would buy, I already own.

    In Chicago we had a really lovely Border’s, with an excellent children’s section; a bookstore that was technically Roman Catholic, but generally stocked one copy each of dozens of classic books (if you wanted, say, a Book of Common Prayer, or an Augustine title, you’d go there); an independent bookstore that was heavy on literature (and walking distance from my work, as was the Border’s); a used-book store that was absolutely stuffed to the gills and overflowing. I happily browsed–and bought from–all of those stores, and I would do so today if I still lived there and if any are still in business. The Christian stores, not so much–they got to where it was mostly “Jesus junk” they offered, the books included, and the one near me could only special order if it was in a specific catalog. If I wanted John Donne’s poetry (thoroughly Christian, but not published by the CBA), I had to order it elsewhere. So today I order through Amazon guilt-free, and with every purchase I get to choose whether to get it used or new. Do I like what they have done to the market, no, but then, I don’t like what the market did to itself. Amazon may be, in the long run, saving book publishing by getting people to buy more books.

    If someday I live walking distance from a bookstore, or an easy drive from one, I may go back to buying books that way. I prefer it; browsing is at least half the pleasure of buying a book, and “look inside this book” isn’t comparable. But it is very impractical and worse to drive 15 miles to browse in a chain bookstore that is highly unlikely to have what I want–and it costs more if they do have it. And it’s a chain, and doesn’t have the best business practices, so I’m not sure the real benefit to mankind anyway. But a good quality store, especially an independent one? I’d shop there in a heartbeat, and would happily do so again if given the chance.

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  38. It is the little things. I went to bed so frustrated. Looked through all my email and nothing that I hd sent was in the sent folders. Arrrrrrgh…. By this morning I realized that the help desk must have changed my settings and found the correct box to check. Hopefully that will work. I had to have a bit of extra chocolate to deal with it all last night.

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  40. Don’t think I have any on hand, Kizzie — will pick some up when I buy Airborne, just waiting for these guys to finish up and be gone, though I guess I could go now. My friend down the street wants me to drink a green smoothie she’s making in her blender, says it will fix me.

    You have to give Amazon credit for developing a pretty amazing business model that works seamlessly with our new online economy. I miss browsing at bookstores, too, but to be honest you pay sometimes substantially more if you buy there.

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  41. On the flip side of a poor person looking at what a rich one has, and coveting it and/or feeling resentful, is something some poorer folks have experienced. When some people see someone else paying for their groceries with “food stamps”, they feel it is their place to judge what is being bought, or how “poor” the person looks.

    I shared something on Facebook a while back pointing out that a poor person may have a good car because they bought it before losing a job, or they may have a smart phone, or nice-looking clothes, because someone else if paying for it for them. (Nightingale has bought name-brand, expensive-when-new, clothing for The Boy dirt cheap at a consignment shop.)

    Reminds me of the stories of nasty notes being left on cars parked in a handicap spot, or the cars being keyed, because the person didn’t outwardly look disabled, but did have a disability that made it hard for them to walk long distances.

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  42. And that last part reminds me of my mom. She would use my dad’s handicapped card thingie (placed hanging off the rear-view mirror) to park close. But at other times, she’d be telling me how she really wanted to do more walking. 😀 (I would be embarrassed when she would use a handicapped spot when I was out with her.)

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  43. Like Michelle, I patronized book stores because I wanted them to stay there.
    But now I have to read everything on my Kindle because I can adjust the print size.
    The only place I can by books now is on Amazon.

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  44. I remember once or twice in Chicago, someone telling me that some “healthy looking” person was sitting in the handicapped spot on the bus or otherwise taking advantage of something for the handicapped, and I always wonder how someone can tell at a glance about a stranger’s health. Does a person have to be in a wheelchair or on crutches to be handicapped?

    My neighbors in Nashville had an office out of their home, and someone working for them a few hours a week. One very sweet employee they had fell in love with Misten as a puppy, and she would come over and pet her over the fence if she was outside. One day she said in shock, “Is she a collie?” She had assumed she was a sheltie, but then she kept growing. 🙂 Anyway, the neighbors told me that the girl was happy for the part-time job, since she didn’t earn enough on disability to live on (she shared a home with her mother, a widow I think), but neither could she handle a full-time job. Because of her disability income, she could only keep half of her income, but she at least had some income. It turns out she had a fatal genetic disease and had already outlived about 99% of people with that disease. She would soon have to quit work, because she was failing and probably wouldn’t live much longer. Anyone looking at her would just see a 20-something woman, and would assume good health, but the truth was quite different. Judging a stranger’s health (or marital happiness, or godliness, or any number of other things) based on appearance is foolish.

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  45. Michelle @ 1:01. I listened to Ken Fish on the link. It was interesting, and I follow his logic. But I’m skeptical about his timing. I think all the “timers” are off.

    The thing is, everyone has to analyze the situation in the context of his environment. That’s the reason I grew up hearing that the Pope was anti-Christ and Babylon was Rome.
    I do know that the world is a mess and that the time is ripe.
    But not as bad as it was for multitudes who lived in the middle ages. But the world survived that. We, in America have been immensely blessed of all the people in the world and we are throwing it away. I hate to say this, but I suspect that thing will get terribly worse.
    I’ve said a dozen times before that I don’t fear for myself, time isn’t that ripe. But I pray every day for protection of mine in the coming days.

    For anyone who is interested, I recommend a book that someone here recommended to me.
    “God’s War on Terror”, but Walid Shoebat.

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  49. My mother had the same kid/boy problem. I don’t.
    But it’s a nice picture. A boy and his dog.
    It can’t get any better than that when you’re five.

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  50. Mrs L is from rural Iowa, a state that is 97% White, so she hardly ever saw minorities. Her first college dorm room, however, was three black girls from St. Louis, and Mrs L. It was the first time she was the racial minority. The room on the other side of the bathroom also had at least one black girl. One of the roommates was a senior and said she didn’t want to room with a freshman, so M moved traded places with the black girl in the other room.

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  53. Window guys are still working, this is a long day for them. Now they’re taking my front door off to get the narrow broken glass pane replaced. They caught the Tamale Man going by with his cart a few minutes ago which made them happy. 🙂

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  59. Mumsee is playing twenty questions tonight. Ha! The phone changed Mumsee to Murder, but I caught that change. Maybe Mumsee would like to figuratively murder those who misuse the word “kid.”

    At the tax office, the preparers play twenty questions with the clients 😃

    I cooked a turkey breast in the crockpot today at the office. I am getting back into the healthy diet changes. One of the clients thought I was cooking a roast.

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  60. I had not noticed that Blue was in the upper right corner of the picture. And yes, he is a blue heeler, although he is actually a header, which is probably why he came to live with us. The nanny is an Alpine bred to a Nigerian dwarf. The boy is 6. It is a feeder, and they do not get out of the pen through it.

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