57 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-31-18”

  1. Good morning on the new thread.
    I was chatting with Peter on yesterdays.
    Good night Jo.
    Everyone else? Hit it.

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  6. Five-day-a-week football practice started for The Boy last night. They have it for five evenings each week from now until school starts on the 29th, and then three evenings a week until the end of the season. The Boy loves it! He comes home all sweaty and pink-cheeked. 🙂

    As this new football practice season begins, it brings back memories of Hubby being in the hospital last year. He was in one hospital or another from August 31 until his death on October 2. (Yes, there was a less than 24-hour period when he was home on in early September, but that barely counts.) Football practice was going on during that time, and Hubby enjoyed hearing about it and seeing photos Nightingale took. He was so looking forward to seeing The Boy play in a game. (That never happened.)

    Anyway, it is a strange, sad feeling, so strongly reminiscent of that time last year. Nightingale is feeling the same way.

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  7. Mumsee, I will not need to pack much more clothing than what I carried to your place. I will, however, need to pack more food. Since there is no agriculture in the far north, groceries have to be shipped or flown in, and shipping is only available for a short period in the summer. This means that groceries we take for granted down here are as much as 3 times more expensive in Nunavut, if they are even available. One of the questions I was asked in interview while applying for a remote placement was, “Are you a vegetarian?” Having dietary restrictions can make northern living much more impracticable. According to all the advice we have received, we would be wise to bring food to supplement what we can access up there.

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  8. Kizzie, I didn’t feel I could ‘like’ your post, but I understand something of the feeling. Repeating an experience when a person who previously shared that experience is no longer there can trigger sudden vivid memories of them and renew one’s sense of loss.

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  9. Kizzie 😦 Bittersweet, that all must be.

    Football practice already? Fall must be coming for the rest of the world (not us). We’re trapped in 80+ degree weather with over 60% humidity, day after day now for a week. Not horrible, just not very comfortable.

    Roscuro, I’m looking forward to seeing some polar bears in our header photos …

    I need to suggest to dog park painter today that we agree this painting arrangement (as in his doing the job) maybe wasn’t meant to be. Seems his mom needs him more than I do. I hope he’s going to be relieved at being set free, but I know he really wanted/needed this job and if he resists it’ll be awkward to say the least. Still, it’s not working out and it doesn’t seem as if it will work out at this point.

    Of course that leaves me to try to find another painter who will probably be more expensive. And this has been a super expensive month for me with a $700 veterinarian bill on top of a $300 car maintenance bill so I may have to catch my breath for another few weeks first — while confirming with Sherwin-Williams that they’ll still honor my sale price for paint going forward, despite this pause in the project.

    And my cold has returned, all day yesterday I had the worst scratchy throat and last night I felt really awful. I’m not much better this morning so I’m staying in sick. It’s obviously not serious enough to go to urgent care, it’s ‘just a cold,’ but I’ve been battling a chest cold, now more of an overall cold, for weeks now, which is so odd for me this time of the year.

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  10. Will Roscuro have internet access up North so she can send photos?

    Kizzie- I “liked” your post, but only because of the sorrow you feel. I don’t know what you are going through, but the loss of anyone we love is hard to overcome.

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  11. As Chas also reminds us, it’s important to let your loved ones know where you are.

    A friend’s family has been panicked over the Redding fires because her 80 year-old widowed cousin Bill disappeared in the evacuation–or did he?

    Police visited the house (which stands), innumerable phone calls to no answer. Where was he?

    She told me about it and I relayed the story of an elderly couple from our church who had no cell phone and just drove away. Their disappearance made the national news and since they had left their house, they had no phone numbers.

    They turned up a few days later 80 miles north (after having gone 50 miles south to San Francisco) and were stunned when they finally remembered a phone number and called to check on things!

    I suggested my friend call Bill’s church–ours kept track of us all. It took awhile to remember the name of his church!

    His step-daughter wrote last night:

    I got to talk to Bill tonight. He’s staying at his preacher’s house. It was so good to hear his voice. Here’s the story: when he was ordered to Evacuate, he grabbed as much stuff as he could gather up, forgetting his phone and some of his supplements . He drove south to Anderson. which I think is s out 20 miles to the south.

    He spent the night in a Walmart parking lot and the next day sought out his preacher.

    He was invited. by the preacher to house sit for him as he was going to be gone for a few days. I guess the preacher had a complicated phone system with buttons and other electronic gadgets and he didn’t know how to work it.

    He unnecessarily apologized several times but I could tell he was pleased about the love and concern that our family had for him.

    [His cell phone was found on his kitchen table filled with frantic messages from his family]

    A story that ended well.

    Moral: In a crisis, don’t forget to call your family–and it helps if they know the name of your church!

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  12. Ok, text has been sent to dog park painter, let’s hope his reaction is “oh good! I’m free of that burden” and that his response won’t be resistance by arguing he can still do it; I’m hoping he doesn’t try to hang on to a job that seems destined (in my mind) nto to get done in the near future. Just very awkward, all of it.

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  13. Phos, do NOT listen to Donna. Do NOT get close enough to a polar bear to take a picture. Not unless you have strong telephoto lenses.
    Polar bears are mean.
    Maybe from inside a big truck?

    Liked by 1 person

  14. We actually had a multi-paper training yesterday on covering wildfires (several of our sister papers are inland and often have to mobilize to cover these things as they’re near the mountains; wildfires don’t really impact us in our coverage area at the beach all that much, but sometimes the sister papers will still ask for volunteers from our end to pitch in. Anyway, interesting and some of it of course was applicable to covering any kind of fast, urgent event that breaks in any of our territories, from earthquakes to ? Mostly just a review of mobilizing our staffs but there are always tweaks to be learned for social media ‘mining’ and live blogging elements.

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  15. Roscuro, yes, listen to Chas. But that’s what zoom lenses are made for 🙂

    We can all squint and try to figure out what those white blobs are when the photos post.

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  17. In discussing DJ’s insect bites, I believe it was RKessler who mentioned tobacco and not knowing where to find it. How about son’s backpack. Seems he has “recently” started chewing. His “friend” gets it for him.

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  19. Peter, one of the university’s requirements for a remote/global placement is that it have internet access as we are expected to complete an online course while we are there.

    Chas, don’t worry, I have no intention of getting close enough to take photos of a polar bear.
    But I might see if I can get a camera with a telephoto lens. I asked a couple of weeks ago if anyone knew of a camera that took good night shots, but the camera enthusiasts among us never replied – thinking about it, I don’t remember seeing any night shots on here. I have done some research, however, and it looks as if any camera, so long as it has a good tripod to keep it steady, should be able to do the job. The aurora borealis will be visible up there, and I want to be able to get some pictures of them. If I get any good ones, I will be sure to send some along to The Real.

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  21. Mumsee, chewing tobacco can cause mouth cancer. It also stains the teeth and is very messy, as nicotine is a deadly poison and the chewed tobacco must be spit out. My father remembers a local in the village where he grew up who chewed tobacco and carried a can everywhere to spit in. I guess no one had spittoons any more in the 1950s. Still, chewing tobacco is a bit of an American tradition and was very popular in the 1800s in the U.S. – when people were much more likely to die of an infectious disease before cancer settled in – as Dickens noted on his visit to Washington, D.C. and the Capitol in 1842:

    ‘As Washington may be called the head-quarters of tobacco-tinctured saliva, the time is come when I must confess, without any disguise, that the prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expectorating began about this time to be anything but agreeable, and soon became most offensive and sickening. In all the public places of America, this filthy custom is recognised. In the courts of law, the judge has his spittoon, the crier his, the witness his, and the prisoner his; while the jurymen and spectators are provided for, as so many men who in the course of nature must desire to spit incessantly. In the hospitals, the students of medicine are requested, by notices upon the wall, to eject their tobacco juice into the boxes provided for that purpose, and not to discolour the stairs. In public buildings, visitors are implored, through the same agency, to squirt the essence of their quids, or ‘plugs,’ as I have heard them called by gentlemen learned in this kind of sweetmeat, into the national spittoons, and not about the bases of the marble columns. But in some parts, this custom is inseparably mixed up with every meal and morning call, and with all the transactions of social life. The stranger, who follows in the track I took myself, will find it in its full bloom and glory, luxuriant in all its alarming recklessness, at Washington…

    The Senate is a dignified and decorous body, and its proceedings are conducted with much gravity and order. Both houses are handsomely carpeted; but the state to which these carpets are reduced by the universal disregard of the spittoon with which every honourable member is accommodated, and the extraordinary improvements on the pattern which are squirted and dabbled upon it in every direction, do not admit of being described. I will merely observe, that I strongly recommend all strangers not to look at the floor; and if they happen to drop anything, though it be their purse, not to pick it up with an ungloved hand on any account.’

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  22. It is interesting to note that every culture seems to have its commonly accepted general addiction to a stimulant. In West Africa, the caffeine-laced kola nut was chewed, in addition to the regular drinking of imported concentrated green tea – between the two, it is hardly surprising that many of the patients we saw needed to be treated for high blood pressure. Here in North America, the tobacco cigarette is gradually going out of vogue, but accepted stimulation still comes in the form of caffeinated beverages.

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  23. Phos @ 11:12. I remember long ago, I was talking with Chuck or Linda, Becky was in the back seat with me. I happened to say, “cigarettes stain your teeth and make your breath smell bad.” I noticed Becky’s reaction, though she said nothing.
    I realized that that statement had more effect than a four-hour lecture on lung cancer.
    I was kidding about the polar bear. But I’m glad you took it seriously.

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  24. Yes, we have mentioned that to him. He is very much into protein powders and building muscle mass so one might think he cared about his health. But his diet would indicate otherwise. He is young and stupid, there is no known cure. God can fix it, we pray.

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  25. The new go to cigarette is vaping. It was developed to help people stop smoking, supposedly, but the young folk that would not smoke, vape. I suspect it is not healthy. They are then moving on to cigarettes.

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  27. In Arizona I knew of few people who chewed tobacco. One was a five-year-old boy. I’ve often wondered what happened to that child, who was a real study in contrasts (he had very white hair and looked innocent, and he was only five–but other children told me their mothers told them to stay away from him, that he had a really dirty mouth, and my neighbor didn’t like him either, since he destroyed some of her Catholic statues or she thought he did).

    Kizzie, my sister-in-law who died in 2009 was only a sister-in-law; I didn’t even know her well until the last six or seven years of her life (because she was a decade older than me and I was only ten when she married my brother, and we only lived in the same state for a year or so), in those last years she really felt like a sister. But these days, as we bring our house together, I often wish for her expertise. And I suspect that if she were still alive, she would be willing to come up for a week or so and get the rest of our wallpaper off. (We bonded over working together in my Nashville house, and I went to birthday dinners for all her kids and her first grandchild and then spent a lot of time with her and my brother, in their house, as she lost her fight with cancer. But the biggest time factor was her coming to my house for one, two, or three days and working long hours to get stuff done. She knew how to do that stuff, and I didn’t, and she was a very hard worker.)

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  28. Morning! I have a do nothing day today…the only one this week! Mumsee my eldest and his buddies “chewed” in high school. They were on the wrestling team and it was decided that they could make weight if they chewed instead of eating. Years later while in the Coast Guard cancer wad detected on the inside of his gum. A not so pleasant surgery removed it all thankfully. Lesson learned after the consequences felt of that bad decision. He now warns others..and he sees it quite often living in KY…..

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  29. The only person I knew that chewed, before moving here and meeting many, lost all of his teeth and developed mouth cancer in mid thirties. We don’t recommend it and I confiscated the can but he will do what he is going to do. And “friends” will continue to provide.

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  30. In all my 88 years, I have never known a person who chewed tobacco.]
    I have seen it. It is a dirty habit because they have to spit so often.

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  31. Mumsee it was not until years later that we learned of the boy’s behavior. We thought they were sucking on Jolly Rancher candies to lose the weight, which we disapproved of them doing. But, they all said it was endorsed by coach….disappointing…..

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  32. Two friends of ours rode a submarine to the North Pole where they stood guard with a rifle to protect the nuclear submarine from polar bears . . . just saying. The bears liked to chew on whatever coats the boat!

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  33. Can you rejoice with me while I brag? (And then I’ll go downstairs for my Bible reading).

    The techy queen here is dancing about the house!

    I was able to take my manuscript and turn it into a PDF!

    I could even add the cover and the marketing letter to the front!

    And then I could email it!

    Even Mr. Computer is impressed.

    I’m going to float away on the glory and continue thanking God we did it together!

    Oh, though, I should go for a walk before it gets too hot–it took me all morning . . .

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  35. But nobody “chew’s tobacco”
    They “chaw tobaccy”. Sometimes a guy will bite off another guy’s plug.
    (My memory of this may be faulty. I remember all this from when I was a kid. Not even in the AF did I know anyone to chaw.)

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  36. I was pondering my 2:48 and it occurred to me that after I got out of the AF, none of my friends and colleagues were heavy drinkers or smokers.
    None of Elvera’s large family were smokers. My dad used to smoke cigars before he got saved again.
    I had the last beer I drank with Vernon Fash in Spring of 1953. I can’t think of a single person who was a smoker in subsequent years.

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  37. I have never known anyone who chewed tobacco. I had an aunt who dipped snuff. That was about the same difference as I recall…really ugly. I do not remember her doing it as I got older, but it was when I was very young.

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  38. These days are too busy. Art and I had lunch with friends yesterday that we had not seen in about a year. Tomorrow is WMU and on Thursday it is a trip to the doctor with Karen. The office has been hopping with calls and people dropping by. The drive in was rather scary with a lot of police cars flying around. At one accident scene a motor cycle was down without anyone with it. That is pretty chilling to see. Thankful we were a bit late this a.m.

    Time for me to move along. I have a webinar class shortly. I want to slow down so I can smell the flowers I photograph! I posted a darling picture of my friend’s grandbaby triplets on Facebook (a link to a studio portrait). So extremely cute. The boy of the three is named Roman.

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  40. A member of my close family chews. I keep my mouth shut, nothing to say at that age, but I wonder.
    Here they chew betelnut with lime. Not on centre, though. However it turns the teeth red and you see red spit all over the ground.

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  41. Well, dog park painter balked at my suggestion that we concede defeat & part ways on this project, he said his mom is slowly getting acclimated to being by herself for 3 hours a day and he thinks they’ll get up to 4-5-6 hours very shortly and he’ll be back, though he did note the weather isn’t very pleasant.

    That leaves me in a spot as it would force me to, in effect, ‘fire’ him as the only other alternative — which I don’t think I have it in me to do. He said he’s ‘too’ personally invested in time and effort already spent on prepping my house for painting and he even went out and bought a new paint sprayer for the project.

    At this point, battling this cold in me and the heat outside, I have no energy really to protest, so on we will slog. I’m hoping it’s done by Christmas, anyway. But who knows.

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  42. I took a 2-hour nap earlier but when I woke up the house felt really uncomfortably hot, of course. After a cold shower, it feel a little better. There will be a few more of those to come today.

    I was eyeing the portable A/C units at Lowe’s the other day, it looks like they’ve improved the technology on those in recent years so I may splurge for one. It will at least keep one little area of the house more comfortable. I’ll take what I can get at this point. I just don’t tolerate heat very well anymore.

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  43. it feel?

    No-see-ums are affecting my brain.

    And back to the editing discussion, we all (even editors!) need an editor, always. There are just things we won’t catch in our own copy.

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  45. I went to school with a young man from Kentucky, who chewed tobacco. His father taught him to do so at about 5 years old, so as not to be poisoned by nicotine while stripping tobacco plants in the field.

    I have a friend who chewed copenhagen for more than 20 years before he quit. He says it is the most addicting substance known to man. Even today, if someone near him pulls out a can to get a dip, he salivates with the craving.

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  46. Ah, so much for those portable a/c units … I guess the technology hasn’t improved all that much

    https://www.consumerreports.org/portable-air-conditioners/are-portable-air-conditioners-a-lot-of-hot-air/

    Are Portable Air Conditioners a Lot of Hot Air?
    Consumer Reports’ tests find that these heavy units are iffy at cooling—and hardly portable

    ___________________

    Think of portable air conditioners as the cooling choice of last resort. They’re better than a fan, but not much.

    That’s what Consumer Reports discovered in its tests of portable air conditioners: Despite their claims, these machines barely got a room below sweltering, let alone the 78° F that’s widely considered the upper threshold of indoor comfort.

    Portable air conditioners are intended for homes in which window configurations or building regulations prevent installation of window units.

    “A portable air conditioner is an alternative—but not an ideal one,” says Chris Regan, who oversees Consumer Reports’ air-conditioner tests. Portable units are typically bigger, noisier, and more expensive, and use more energy. In fact, retailers report that many portable air conditioners are returned each season by dissatisfied customers. …
    ________________________________

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  47. I will just have to get my Civil War rifle and fine a place to sit under a tree in Winchester — with all the other Californians heading into western Idaho.

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  49. RK, Rush often speaks of “formerly nicotine stained fingers”. A caller once asked how he got over his desire for cigarettes. He said, “I want one now”.
    This was years ago.

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  51. Totally different subject. Roscuro, it occurred to me the other day to wonder, in addition to the diseases tattoo needles might subject a person to, if medical people hate seeing them because they make it so hard to see a person’s skin. I almost never can even see what today’s tattoos are supposed to represent. I mean, flags and animals and a single word tattoo are easy, but they are so often fancy, detailed designs or a lot of writing you can’t possibly politely take time to read. A lot of the time they just look like a dark smudge all over a person’s arm, and it occurred to me that it must be impossible to see bruises, or moles, or potential skin cancer, or any number of other things you might need to see on the skin. Is that the case?

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  52. All my large casement windows are thrown open and there’s a wonderful south breeze sweeping through the house, curtains billowing. We’re down to an inside temp of 82, not bad for this house by 7 p.m. these days.

    And I finished off the first bottle of yard insecticide spray in the backyard (I bought 2 from Amazon so I still have the back up bottle). We’ll see if that kills them off and ends the problem (I’m meanwhile spraying Deep Woods repellent all over me before I venture out there).

    I’m feeling better, the sore scratchy throat I’ve had since yesterday seems to finally be gone. I still feel tired but that’s probably just the heat. Back to work for me tomorrow.

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  53. Kizzie, prayers for you as various memories of your hubby come flooding back.

    Roscuro, I’ll be keeping you in my prayers, as well, as you prepare to head to Nunavut.

    DJ, I hope you can get rid of that chest cold you’ve been battling.

    Lots of things to pray about.

    Liked by 1 person

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