47 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-15-18”

  3. Ah, lovely photo, DJ. I started to say I haven’t seen the Pacific Ocean since 1989, but when I went to California for my brother’s wedding in 2010, we actually flew over it when leaving.

    We went to Florida and saw the gulf in Alabama and Florida two years ago. But I think back to my childhood, when we drove as far as Phoenix to Niagara Falls on vacation (always in old cars). But one time we were going to be close enough to the Atlantic to see it–the only time in my life, as it turns out–so Mom had Dad drive one street over and stop so that we could squint at it through a little gap. And I think now, why didn’t we actually drive a little closer and actually go down and see it, maybe even wade in it? I don’t know what state we were in (likely somewhere in New England, since we did once drive to Mom’s home state of Connecticut), or how easy that would have been–but we had just driven across nearly the entire continent, so why not?

    Liked by 3 people

  5. I have lived 88 years, and I believe I have heard the word :absolute” used more the last two weeks than all the years before.
    It means “unlimited” power.
    But young people don'[t say “yes”, they say “absolutely”.
    And that’s the absolute truth.
    (I heard a guy on TV say that. That is absolutely the reason I’m saying this.)

    Liked by 2 people

  7. As usual, I think my day will go one way and then it is totally different. I thought I would be in the office this crazy tax deadline day. Late last night I found out my brother would be there today so I don’t have to go in. Now I can help at church with those still dealing with the media center books that were moved to a ‘safe’ space that now must be cleared.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Morning! We did not get our 3-5 inches of snow…we got maybe an inch with ice underneath…but it is pretty…and cold!! 17 was our high yesterday.
    I saw the Pacific when we were in Oregon and again when we were in Santa Cruz. I am not a beach lovin’ person….I love the mountains and the farmlands….absolutely! 😊

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Kizzie you made a comment over the weekend and I have been pondering it since then as I am guilty of the same thing and Michelle and Mumsee have helped me see it. When I say what I am about to say, it is in love and pointing the finger back at myself.

    You bemoan the fact that Chickadee (in my case BG) doesn’t live with you. You want her to spend more time with you. It is a constant worry.
    Then, you turn around and tell us how sometimes Nightingale and the Boy (who DO live with you, sometimes exhaust you and interfere with your plans.

    I personally am guilty of focusing on what I don’t have instead of being thankful for what I do have. BG had dinner with me Friday night. I had wanted her to spend the weekend with me since Mr. P would be out of town. I was mad, hurt, and a multitude of other feelings. Finally, I took a deep breath, fixed the dinner she requested and enjoyed her. Friday and Saturday I had the baby by myself. I finally sat down Saturday and rocked her for an hour so she would get some sleep. She had been fussy with me Friday and that night with her parents.

    I love you Kizzie.

    Liked by 4 people

  10. Good morning, it’s Monday.

    On Friday the editors sent us all our “pre-” election races we need to do stories on this week, with some deadlines as early as 1 p.m. today. So we’re all going to be scrambling. I have a City Council race and a congressional race, along with 2 others that I can’t remember anything about 🙂

    We have to file these advance stories earlier and earlier as people vote ahead of time.

    It’s peaceful sometimes to just stare out at the ocean, stretching endlessly into the horizon. It has a very calming affect on me usually, though I almost always have the dogs with me and they’re anxious to get moving already. On the day I took this I was there for an assignment (the sea lion release) and had arrived early ahead of the sea lion and his crew. It’s only a couple miles south of my house & is a favorite spot to take my dogs; the author of the book you were reading, Cheryl, lived there in a little thatched hut when she was growing up.

    Liked by 3 people

  12. The you tube video is a history of the place, I don’t think it has sound but has subtitles (at least I couldn’t get any sound to work.

    Here’s another article:

    http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history/2010/06/02/white-point-hot-spring-hotel/

    ________________________________

    During its heyday in the 1920s, it was one of the most popular beach resorts in Southern California, especially among Japanese-Americans.

    Before Tojuro Tagami and his brother Tamiji built the resort in 1917, the area had been part of the Rancho de los Palos Verdes, which owner Jose Sepulveda had used as a cattle ranch.

    In 1898, then-owner Ramon Sepulveda built housing and leased land to 12 Japanese-American fishermen from Los Angeles who had discovered an abundance of abalone and other readily harvestable sea life in the area. The fishing village thrived until 1906, when the abalone supply diminished and the operation closed.

    The discovery of a sulfur hot spring in the area led to the Tagami brothers developing the bathhouse, together with Ramon Sepulveda. They built roads and dug out the hot spring, and by 1925 the resort included a hotel, restaurant, salt water swimming pools and an enclosed boating area.

    Sepulveda also had built a terrazo dance floor surrounded by stone fireplaces and carved stone benches, some of which still survive today.

    A variety of factors led to the resort’s demise. A huge storm battered the coast in 1928, damaging the concrete pool. A bigger blow came when the Long Beach earthquake of 1933 cut off the flow of the natural sulfur hot springs, and the Depression also hurt the resort economically.

    The Tagamis continued to run the resort, but they never were granted ownership of the land. Ramon Sepulveda legally could not sell to them under a California law which prohibited ownership of land by those not eligible to become citizens, a category that at that time included Asian immigrants.

    The resort finally closed in the late 1930s. In February 1942, federal agents raided the surrounding community for security reasons and by April 1942, its residents had been moved to internment camps. …

    _________________________________

    Liked by 2 people

  13. This particular stretch of the coast faces south and is popular among fishermen, surfers, outdoor weekend & holiday barbecuers and tide pool waders looking for all the interesting critters who live in the shallow waters around those rocks.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. I almost took Kim for a spin down there. When we finished driving from the airport around the coast, the long way, and got into my neighborhood, I could have turned right and gone to this beach or left to go to my house. It was getting kind of late so I went left. But I should have taken the extra 10 minutes for a quick spin down there first. Oh well. Next time.

    Painters are due back today following our rainy weekend. They *should* be able to finish up this week, I think. It should be sunny and warm all week.

    Among the little things I now notice: I had the roofers use gray shingles on the porch overhang when they put the new roof on. I had no idea 2+ years ago what color I’d be painting the house (and didn’t completely realize then, anyway, that you could/should coordinate roof colors with other exterior color schemes). The house (then) was faded blue so gray made sense and they said it was generally the safest neutral to go with.

    If I were doing it now, of course, I’d pick more of a warm red/brown shade or even a mixed cream/brown/red pattern (they have that!), similar to the pavers in the driveway.

    The gray roof over the porch now kind of stands out in an odd contrasty way next to all that cream and brandywine on the house. I’m becoming very nit-picky.

    Liked by 2 people

  16. Nice talking crab on the video. “Hi! You are friendly for a crab.”
    That is a lovely park. I would have trouble with all the rocks in the water. I’ve waded in mountain streams with a lot of rocks and had troubles staying balanced and not getting scraped.

    It made me think of how the old hotel on top of Lookout Mountain is a major building of Covenant College. It’s great when old resorts can be repurposed and saved.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Well, again my day has not gone as I envisioned. Art lost his parking ticket when he was at the Memory lab for fifteen minutes. He had to pay 25.00 to get out of the lot ( there from 7:42 to 8:01). I found the ticket when he got home, so then I had to find out what to do for a refund (send an email with a picture of the found ticket). Hopefully I took care of that. Then I found out the media center books had all been hauled away. That is disheartening as I had wanted some to go to Christian Library International. I do not know who got them, but more than likely it was not a Christian organization. At least I previously prayed over them that they would go to where God could use them best.

    Now onward to see how many more of my plans will change today. God is good to provide time at home so I can tackle some chores. I have already sawed some branches off a holly bush this a.m. i have food to cook and dishes to wash. Christian music will keep me good company.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Earlier I moved the older Honda from one side of the carport to the other to sweep out the acvumulated fall leaves. Then I planned to back the car out and put oil in it in case I needed to go somewhere. My plan was foiled by the car not cranking. It could be the battery or the engine/oil problem that caused the need to acquire the newer car. Certain models of Hondas have oil consumption problems. Some have recalls. but with the age of ours they did not recall it. The oil just disappears so you do not realize it is gone and it could cause a deadly accident. I thought the car would be suitable for close to home trips. Not so sure now.

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  21. I’m going to watch the video at lunch. I never knew a lot of that, but it’s so interesting to me. My homeland has a history!

    Here’s a video I made for Poppy. 48 seconds to satisfying Amazon.

    My life is crazy, but I repeat myself.

    Liked by 6 people

  23. My goodness, Royal Palms is so different from when we visited regularly as children! That was where I was introduced to tide pools. We clamored over so many rocks and boulders– that I guess aren’t there anymore? It looks far less wild.

    The last we took our kids, a bad storm had decimated the area and there were few tide pools. I was so sorry.

    We knew about a resort, but scramblingamong the rocks could make out little of what must have been there. Video was fascinating as a result.

    Time to and the sea take their toll. Thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

  25. Eleven year old and I finished as much as we are going to do on the roof of the horse shelter for now. We just put plywood up with the idea of putting up tin later. Perhaps when twelve year old is back and can help us lift it. The plywood sheets were a struggle. The biggest error was closing off my access to the ladder so she had to move it to where I could get to it, but I learned the trick of going through the spaces and that worked. I did not put the ladder on the roof to work

    Liked by 2 people

  26. lovely ocean view. What is that I am seeing in the distance?
    I actually did post last night, but, with our spotty internet, it did not post.

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  28. Roscuro, from yesterday, you asked me, “Cheryl, why is the skin colour a necessary identification for your hypothetical neighbor or the woman in the store? What information needs to be conveyed by that description? Would it make your narrative any different if their skin colour was left out? If one was giving a police description of the person one saw rob the bank, then skin, hair, and eye colour, height, build, approximate age, etc. all are important information. But in casual conversation about one’s neighbour, or the woman at the store, why is skin colour a necessary description? What are the words ‘black’ or ‘white’ meant to convey to one’s hearers, and why does it need to be conveyed? And why isn’t hair and eye colour equally important?”

    Is it a “necessary” part of the description, no. But neither is the fact that she is a woman, that she is old, or that her entire face is covered with tattoos (or whatever else might be said about her). We have an employee at or local grocery store, a very knowledgeable employee. But if I were telling you about him, I wouldn’t tell you only that he is a man, since you’d miss most of what makes him noteworthy. He is about 60 with a bushy full beard, several piercings (including some of the ones that stretch the ear), and multiple tattoos, And last time we were at the grocery store, he was wearing a blue and green kilt. (He’s white, by the way. Probably Scottish.) In that instance, his age might be the most surprising part of the description–you might expect me to be describing someone 25, not a graying baby boomer.

    I’m a writer, and sometimes I risk adding too much detail. Surely it’s not wrong to mention that a person is black, or has her hair dyed vivid pink and blue, or that he has Down syndrome or is in a wheelchair? Now, if my only mention of race is tied to criminals, that’s a different matter. But when I say that my sister-in-law is from the Philippines, that’s part of her identity. Her eye color is insignificant. Her ethnicity and national heritage are cultural traits, and likely to be significant ones.

    Roscuro, multiple times I have heard black people give some version of “Don’t tell me how colorblind you are. That’s telling me my race doesn’t matter, and it does.” In Chicago I was immersed in a black world. I was as surprised as my neighbors the rare time a white person ventured onto my street. One time I was outside my workplace and surprised to see a white person until I remembered I was at work, and white people were more common there than in the hood, and I had a good laugh at myself. I realized with surprise one day that one of the ladies from church was black–not that I hadn’t seen her color, but that I realized with surprise that I really had come to hardly notice it. Occasionally I’d be talking to someone from church, and quoting someone whose name I didn’t know, and they’d say “Was she black or white?” and I’d have to stop and think. Her sex and her age had registered with me more fully. I was once an observer to a white person trying to describe someone to a black woman, and the black woman finally asked, “Was she black?” and he swallowed and said yes, as though he were insulting her by noticing. My black friend laughed and said he should have started with that.

    White people do tend to describe people by hair and eye color. But people of other ethnicities do not–for the simple reason that the answer would nearly always be “black, brown.” So black people describe by skin tones, for instance coffee colored. I’m not good enough with colors to try that, and black people don’t expect us to. But noticing broadly what ethnicity or race someone is is not innately insulting or demeaning; it’s part of who they are.

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  29. I covered a tide pool walk a few years ago on one the holiday shifts.

    I was doing a video on my phone when I stepped o a very slippery rock and went down hard, the video still running. Funny to watch it later 😙

    Liked by 2 people

  31. Kim – Just got around to reading comments here, and see you left a comment for me, so I am jumping ahead to reply. . .

    Yes, I said that sometimes when I realize they are going to be hanging around for the evening, I am initially disappointed, usually because I am already tired or worn out or stressed. But I also said that I then “decide to put aside my expectations, and enjoy having them around. It pleases me that they like to be with me. I am very grateful to God for the relationship I have with them.”

    You have to remember that they are down here with me a lot. So those evenings of them hanging out down here often come after my having already been with one or both of them for a while.

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  39. I have a few questions for any of you in the know about the differences between working as an independent contractor versus as an employee.

    If you saw the weekend prayer thread, you read my mention of a discussion I had with the owner of a music academy.

    We exchanged contact information. This morning she called me to follow up on our weekend conversation, to give me more information, and to ask if I’d thought more about teaching there.

    Some of the things I learned from our conversations raised more questions, and I’d be interested to know how you might answer them, or what you might advise.

    First, if I would be an independent contractor (as she said I would be if I teach there), rather than an employee of her business (as she said I would not be), wouldn’t that mean I should be paid directly by the students/families I teach, rather than by the academy?

    There is a music studio in our area where the teachers are identified as independent contractors, and it is clear on their website that families pay their teachers, not the studio. (There is a registration fee each year that families pay the studio for facility expenses, but lesson money is paid directly to the teachers. I assume the teachers also pay to rent teaching space from the studio, but don’t know for sure. The small registration fee alone doesn’t seem to be anywhere near what a studio would need to fully cover expenses.)

    At the academy whose director is in contact with me now as I consider working there, families taking lessons pay the academy through automatic withdrawal set up through the bank, and then the academy pays the teachers.

    Is that still an independent contractor situation, when one gets paid by the hosting institution rather than by the people who are receiving the service the teacher is offering? IOW, who pays an independent contractor? Can it vary? And how is it different from being an employee if you’re paid by the person who hires you?

    I should probably ask her, too, if I would need to pay rent to teach there. I would hope that’s included in the 50% cut the academy takes, but I don’t know.

    Also, she mentioned that in other similar situations elsewhere, independent contractors often don’t get 50%, but more like 40% or even only 30% or 20% of what the clients are actually being charged. Have you found that to be true?

    She also said that, in her experience, most people these days who are looking for music lessons don’t want to go to a private teacher’s home — they’re a lot more likely to sign up with a studio/music school than with someone teaching from home.

    Anecdotally, that appears to be true. I never thought I would have had so few inquiries for lessons in the past four years since resuming teaching piano to the general public. It wasn’t like that at all years ago before I stopped teaching others besides my own children.

    If you were looking for music lessons for your child or grandchild (or yourself), and had to choose a stranger, would you absolutely (there’s that word) avoid a work-from-home teacher and only choose from those with outside studios? That is what this music academy director says is happening more and more these days.

    BTW, just as an FYI, I’m still considering her offer — she really wants me on board — and I would be able to choose my hours of availability. Mornings (teaching homeschoolers or retired adults, for example) would actually be a pretty decent time for me, family-wise, if I say yes. She said I could bring my kids to work with me, too, if I wanted.

    So… new considerations.

    Sorry so long. If you can sort any of this out and offer answers or comments on anything I’ve said or not said, that would be awesome.

    Anything obvious I’m missing?

    Thanks.

    Liked by 1 person

  40. 6 Arrows, Kim might be the one to know. But one probable difference is that you’d be responsible for self-employment taxes.

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  41. Thanks Cheryl. I was reading and thought there are a lot of unanswered questions there. 6 I will contact you tomorrow

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  43. 6 Arrows – Hubby was an independent contractor (although they were called IOs – independent operators) with the bread route he owned. The customers paid the bill to the bread company, and then the company paid Hubby his percentage. He was responsible for paying his self-employment taxes and getting his own health insurance. If he had wanted to take a vacation, he would have had to save up to pay a substitute driver to run his route.

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  44. The lady who cuts my hair a few times each year is an independent contractor. She gets paid directly by the customer. I think she pays to rent the chair and space she uses at the salon.

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  45. The bread company took advantage of their IOs. They kept changing the “goalposts” so to speak, making it harder for IOs to make much money.

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  46. Kizzie, I thought of your husband, too, while writing my post. I was pretty sure he had been an independent contractor, but couldn’t remember / didn’t really understand the ins and outs of his job situation.

    The hair salon where 2nd Arrow and I and her now-MIL and the bridesmaids had our hair and makeup done on the wedding day was set up with each stylist having her own studio. Each had a different business name on the door, and we paid the stylist directly. Each was an independent contractor, renting space in the building, and having freedom to create in her own unique way.

    You know, one thing that seems off about this independent contractor business with the music academy I mentioned is this statement on their website:

    Because “Life Happens” we offer group make up lessons open to all currently enrolled students. Lessons are held on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. unless otherwise noted. The teaching staff for these lessons rotates. You may take part in as many of these as you wish at no extra charge.

    YOU MUST REGISTER THROUGH THE STUDIO NO LATER THAN 6:00 PM ON THURSDAY THE WEEK OF THE LESSON YOU WANT TO JOIN. Saturday make up lesson will be cancelled if no one is registered by the Thursday cut off.

    Well, what if the independent contractor teachers don’t list Saturdays in their availability? Are they still required to be in the teaching staff rotation for those makeup lessons? That sounds more like the teachers are employees, then, and not ICs free to make their own decisions about when to work.

    Liked by 1 person

  47. 6 Arrows,I asked Art, and he said it is cleaner if you receive payment from clients and then pay rent to the store. That makes the distinction of being an independent contractor clearer. The store avoids paying fringe benefits (win), and under the new tax rules, the teacher can deduct expenses that employees can no longer deduct (win). The win/win was my input, and the rest was from Art.

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