83 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-11-20”

  1. OK for skis.
    But I would hate to go down that in a car. Even with snow tires.
    Too steep and slippery.
    Fortunately, there is nothing on either side.
    Good morning Kare, Aj, and everyone else.

    Liked by 3 people

  2. Based on my English pronunciation post yesterday my question is about the word – again.
    The itsy burst 🕷 spider
    Climbed up the water 🚿 spout
    Done came the 🌧 rain
    And washed the 🕷 spider out
    Out came the sun ☀️ sun
    And dried up all the 🌧 rain
    And the itsy bitsy spider
    Climbed up the spout again.

    I remember that anything my dad read to me, or quoted like this he rhymed rain with ah-gain. I know he mostly did this when quoting poetry.
    Where are my language and grammar geeks?

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  6. Oooh. Snow! That is beautiful. And probably as cold as the dog park is.

    And it’s Saturday!

    I’m up early, thanks to the cat who can be such a pest in the mornings. So I got up, gave her a little bit of dry food, and she promptly barfs on one of the kitchen throw rugs, luckily they’re cheap and easy to toss in the washing machine; for now I did a paper towel cleanup, ran the spot under the sink faucet, shook some baking soda on it and put it outside.

    I got my gas bill last night, cough-cough. $190 for the past 6-8 weeks. I’d already sent $100 in last week knowing it would be breathtakingly high. The rest now is owed by the end of this month. It always spikes this time of year, of course, but I am using the heater more working from home now, too. I used to flip it off when I left in the morning but now it tends to stay on through the day as I am working. I will have a reassess my heater use. But it’s only a few months a year, from late November to around March, then it goes off and stays off for the rest of the year, generating $10-$20 bills or less every month.

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  9. DJ, that sounds like a lot for gas considering you weren’t battling -20 degree weather. I tend to figure I’m going to wear a sweatshirt or sweater in the winter and have the house a touch cooler than I might choose as perfect, but if my hands or my face are cool, it’s time to turn the heat up a notch. My own preference would be to go without the sweatshirt as it feels a bit restrictive, but I’ve gotten used to it.

    As to weather, it’s 60 degrees out there right now, but the creek is already overflowing and we’re supposed to get 1.6 inches today (our third day in a row of rain, with yesterday being almost nonstop).

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  10. The house is old and it gets cold (and hot in summer), it seems to amplify whatever the temperatures are outside. The heater is set for 70 so when I’m home it comes on and off through the day. And I’ll manually just flip it off for a few hours sometimes during the afternoon. I also think it’s a bit chillier in the back of the house where my work ‘station’ is set up.

    So I’ll lower the set point on it by a few degrees this week to 68 or so. I turn it off when I go to bed at night but I flip it on when I get up.

    It’s not a completely atypical winter gas bill, though (I think everything just costs more in California). And the house is better that it was now that all the windows are re-fitted and have new weather stripping. The first winter I moved in, the gas company wouldn’t light the heater pilot as they declared the appliance (an ancient wall heater) to be “unsafe.” It was one of those “El Nino” winters when we had an onslaught of heavy rain and the house was really cold at times. I used an electric space heater until that started tripping all the power to the house off.

    The following spring I found a moonlighting heating crew that put a forced air heater system under the house for $2,500. It’s still running.

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  12. Morning! We had a dusting of snow overnight and it is now 9 degrees. Dj your gas rates seem high to me. Although we get our bill every 30 days and this month it was just shy of 100 dollars for gas. We used the fireplace quite a bit this month.

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  14. My monthly gas bills are typically $100, sometimes higher, in winter months.

    The cat often hangs out on top of one of the floor grates when the heater is on.

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  15. California Has 6th Highest Utility Costs: Report
    By freeverse330, Neighbor
    Dec 15, 2019 5:58 pm PT

    https://patch.com/california/moorpark/california-has-6th-highest-utility-costs-report
    __________________________

    While taxes and tolls were busy stealing all the headlines and sucking out all the oxygen, the state’s average utility bills have quietly become the 6th most expensive in the nation.

    Move.org researchers set out to learn what utility costs are from state to state, and Connecticut topped the list just behind Hawaii, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. On the average, residents of the Nutmeg State can expect to pay $440.03 per month when totaling their electricity, gas, water, cable and internet bills every month. …

    … In truth, there was little variance in the average water, cable and internet bills nationwide; it’s the electricity and gas fees that move the needle. …

    … If you are dead set on getting ahead of your bills, head to New Mexico, where the total average is the nation’s lowest at $344.55, according to the report. …

    _________________________________

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  16. That road is not slippery with winter tires on. You just have to remember to slow down ahead of time for corners and stops. I drive it every day. You must remember that in severe cold (-15C or lower) snow and ice are not as slippery as if it were a temperature close to freezing. I would much rather drive on a snow/ice covered road in cold temperatures than on one at around freezing.

    Of course I would love to never have to drive (live) in such cold – today we will have windchill around -45C. Ugh.

    At the bottom of that hill there is a road to the south – we live one mile down that road 🙂

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  17. The main road we are off of looked like that on Wednesday. Hubby had a “fit” getting home. I put “fit” in parentheses because it’s our joke, since he drives a Honda Fit.

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  18. Up here in Nor Cal, where we insulated everything and put in a light colored roof that gave us a 10% rebate (and lowered the non-air conditioned interior 10 degrees in the summer), our bill was about $120 for gas and electric last month.

    Lack of good Insulation—and are your windows old and single-paned?— May be making an enormous difference. Could you lock yourself in one room during the day and just heat that?

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  21. In 2018 I lost several Chicago friends, including two with whom I had been quite close. I just found out about one more.

    His parents were my friends more than he was, but he was a genuine friend, too. I attended church with them, and shared their last name, so they adopted me, and often had me over for family holidays (Easter some years, Thanksgiving other years), and I sat with his mom during church half or a third of the time. (His dad was the organist, so he wouldn’t join us till the sermon.) His parents both lived into their 90s, his dad to 97, and according to the obituary both of his older siblings are in their 80s and still alive; he died at 72.

    At his dad’s funeral, I wanted to sit near the front, but a church friend sitting near the back saw me and asked me to sit with her and I did–until this friend saw me and asked me to come up and sit with the family. Their row was full, so I sat two rows behind them. At the reception afterward, wife and son told me they were having a private reception at their house, and I was invited, and of course I went. By that time I knew the other siblings too, though not as well. His mom had me over for lunch a couple of times, and talked to me in a way that told me she saw me as a friend, and a comfort to her.

    After I moved to Nashville, his mom called me every couple of weeks with Chicago updates (and I called her sometimes, too, though she was better at calling me). The son brought his mom to Nashville to see me one day, and I was so pleased to show her my new home and serve her a meal. I visited her when she was in her 90s, and she had put in a patio after her husband’s death, so she could serve guests outside, which never interested her husband but interested her. (What 90-something woman adds a patio after her husband dies?) She walked me around the block (without a cane), to show me the neighbor’s rose garden, and we walked back into their house through the backyard (which wasn’t flat ground). Two or three weeks later she fell and broke her hip and died a couple of days later–and her son called to tell me she had fallen. I don’t remember whether he or someone else told me when she died.

    About once a year he drove through Nashville on business; he’d call me and we’d meet for lunch at Applebee’s. One of my brothers would also sometimes meet me at that Applebee’s when he drove through town. When my husband was looking for a Nashville restaurant for our first date, I told him any place but that Applebee’s, as that was my “brothers” restaurant. He misunderstood and tried to take me there, and I said no, I said anywhere BUT there. (We went to O’Charley’s; the first one we attempted to go to was closed, out of business, but GPS showed the location of another. Twice we have experienced that, driving to O’Charley’s and finding that location out of business.)

    I called to tell him when I was getting married and would be moving. We never talked on the phone, just those occasional lunches, but periodically I have thought I really should call him sometime. And now I find I can’t, not anymore.

    And reading his obituary, my heart is chilled. He wrote it himself, 900 words. And not a word about Christ, or even God or church.

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  23. The church is paying the utilities for this house and I have been told to just stay warm and set the heat higher. I just cannot do it. Yesterday it was set at 65. A friend brought me a small heater but I haven’t figured out where to plug it in yet.

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  24. When we lived in Greece, we lived in the top two floors of an apartment building with two apartments below us. Nobody lived in them the last year. We had noticed our utility bill was too high so I refused to turn on the heat during the winter. It snowed and pipes froze, though not in our building. The landlady came in and insisted on turning on the heat but I declined. She spoke Greek and no English, I spoke English and no Greek. She had been taking our bill out of our mailbox and changing it so we were paying to heat the entire building. I did not mind being cold.

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  25. I chose to keep my old/original windows but they were refitted and weather stripped. One set of casement windows did have to be replaced and replicated but I declined the thicker panes (and one of the workers told me that was good, they were so expensive and didn’t really make that much of a difference). The glass in those, though, I’m sure is heavier than the nearly 100-year-old glass (that wavy, antique glass) in the other windows. How amazing it’s lasted that long.

    The large sliding window in the back office area (where I am most days working from home) and the sliding glass door in the kitchen next to it are new, however (they replaced some rickety old aluminum/metal versions put in with the house addition in the ’70s). Those are new, double paned, and I think they’ve helped both in the winter and summer with the temps in the back of the house (which is on the west).

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  26. Mumsee’s story about the landlord reminds me of a story a missionary to Italy told us. A man had a very high electric bill, so he called an electrician to see why When he turned off the breaker switch for the apartment, the elevator to the building, and the traffic light at the corner both went off. This guy was paying for both of those as well as his own apartment!

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  27. I love the muted blues, grays, and whites in the header, Kare.

    Cheryl, sorry to hear of the loss of your friend. Sobering, too, to lose someone with whom you’ve had a connection who appears to have no connection with the Lord. One could hope that maybe he did have a glimmer of faith but was not the type to express it to others.

    Rather concerning, though, if true, that he gave no indication whatsoever in a 900-word piece that God meant something to him…

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  28. I made a unique find yesterday and now have a place in my entryway for piano students to sit and take off their shoes/boots. It’s an old telephone table with attached chair/bench, similar to the one my grandparents in town had when I was growing up. Did any of you have something like that back in the day?

    It sure brought back memories, seeing such a thing when I stopped by Goodwill yesterday looking for something else. Only $20, and now my tiny front entryway in our split-level home has both character and function for a very affordable price.

    I took a vase of (fake) sunflowers I’d had in my bedroom and put it on the raised part of the bench where the phone would have sat to pretty up the space more. I also found at Goodwill a perfect-sized rug (2X3 feet) to fit under the table and within the space between the front door and bottom step that leads to the upstairs. The rug is jute with chocolate brown and cream-colored weave interspersed throughout — a perfect complement to the multi-colored light-to-medium-brown carpeting on the steps and to the new-old oak table.

    Our entryway has been simply blah the whole time we’ve owned the house. It is such a small space, that it’s never been a priority of ours to pretty up, but, really, it’s the first part of the house visitors see. So I’m glad I found those two inexpensive items — the table and rug — to make a more welcoming spot to those who enter.

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  29. 6 Arrows, his parents were fervent, dedicated Christians, so he definitely grew up in church, and he had their witness into his fifties. We didn’t really talk about theology (when I saw him, basically he talked for two hours while I nodded and asked questions), but he used Christian language enough that it never occurred to me it might simply be that he knew what to say around Christians. But it’s hard to read a 900-word obituary about all the things important to him, and no mention of God, otherwise than to say that at least at the end of his life, God wasn’t high on his list (or whatever family member turned in the obit edited it out, but I can’t imagine that one, either). I couldn’t help but imagine his mother reading that obituary and crying over it, not at his loss of life, but at what it didn’t say.

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  30. I meant to say (but don’t think I did) that the header is really beautiful . . . though I’m glad it’s your road and not mine. 🙂 We are having an awful lot of rain, though, and I went out in a lull to get some photos of the raging creek.

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  31. Cheryl, did he indicate how long ago he wrote his obit? I’m wondering if he might have tucked it away long ago, telling someone at that time where it was, and then forgot about it?

    Maybe he would have written it differently nearer the time of his death than earlier?

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  32. Here, by the way, is a link with images of telephone tables. The one I bought yesterday is similar in design to the one in the third picture from the top of the page, except mine is oak-colored rather than that dark mahogany or whatever it is. Mine also isn’t padded, but the open space under the phone rest is the same, and the seat is to the right of the raised part, too (as you’re sitting in it), like in this image.

    I never knew those telephone tables were also called gossip benches!

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  34. I could slide down that header just looking at it!

    Once I got off a bus at the top of a hill right after dark. The melted snow on the street had turned to ice. I had to use people”s front yards to sit down on and slide my way home. It was treacherous

    Yes, we have high utility bills here. I like to put Cuddle Duds under my clothing to save on the heating bill.

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  35. My husband thinks we live in the frozen north so he dresses like it in the house which leaves me who doesn’t like winter clothes at all and mostly refuse to buy them shivering in my light weight clothing under a fleecy throw.

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  36. Yes, linen won’t keep you warm 🙂 Aren’t you all right in the path of tornados coming your way? Grab the small animals.

    Picked up Cowboy’s meds at the vet’s this morning and got my hair cut at noon.

    6arrows, what a great find (the rug too!). Congratulations, I love those little table/chair set ups though I’m not sure I’ve seen them much before (we didn’t have one, but there was a little table — next to an upholstered chair — that was known as the “telephone table”). Great price for what you got, too.

    I love vintage pieces, especially when you find just the right item to fit in just the right spot.

    I’ve always been partial to the vintage wooden school (lift-top) desks with attached chairs.

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  37. Speaking of snow, someone posted this 1949 article (from the daily paper in the harbor that both Michelle and I worked for but now is defunct):

    https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42105722/snow_in_san_pedro_from_the_january_10/

    ~ Docks, streets, lawns and roofs were blanketed with snow which drifted down between midnight and 4 a.m. … Ray Mitchell, another old-timer, says snow fell on the (peninsula) hills in 1913 and that he dumped a sackful of it on J.A. (Dud) Waite’s desk at the old San Pedro Daily Pilot office. “But this is the first snow I’ve ever seen in San Pedro, proper.” ~

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  39. And the “snowy” park in the photo is the park right up the street from my house where I often walk the dogs.

    So what does everyone think about Megxit ?

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  40. That is a lovely photo up there Kare! We are needing some more of that snow this winter. We do have plenty on the ground but we can always use more!
    I love those telephone benches! My mother in law had one in her bedroom.
    I walked around a couple antique shoppes today searching for a round oak entryway table. Found one that was a good price and it had a wonderful pedestal base. The “just the right size” top was in bad shape with peeling veneer and a long wide dry crack….it was a no from me 😞

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  42. Thanks for that article link 6 arrows. Great line from that article:

    … one side is clearly winning while the other is cowering in a back pew hoping a pack of millennials doesn’t make them wave their arms in the air and sing whatever Chris Tomlin or Bethel Music wrote that morning. …
    ____________________________

    Interesting piece. Some of us were not pleased when the remodel of our leased “church” space featured the return of the screens that the church earlier had scrapped when it joined with the orthodox presbyterian denomination. It was reasoned that very limited use of the screens — to project words to the songs + corporate readings + Scripture verses cited during the sermon — was an aid to worship; but many of us felt it was still distracting.

    We have hymnals (and the bulletins always indicate what page each hymn or song is found on) but few people use them; and I confess I haven’t used them much either, it’s easier to read the words printed in the bulletin (which I prefer to the screens) than fumbling in the book to find the page. But now that I’m convicted, I think starting tomorrow I’ll start using the hymnal, I may even start bringing my own copy! The key would be to mark the pages before the service begins so one could flip through more easily.

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  44. I have been in a bit of a blue funk ever since right after Christmas when I learned of my uncle’s death. He was the last of the brothers, and died at age 84. I have so many memories of him and regret that I did not get to say goodbye. I can still almost conjur up the tang of his cigars and English Leather.

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  45. 6 Arrows, I remember telephone tables, and expected something different from that view, since the one we had was simpler than most of those. I don’t think it had a back, just a short bench.

    Re my friend’s obit: it had all the marks of being recently, including surprise that he is dying so young when his much-older siblings are still alive–he was the baby of the family by at least eight years (though he doesn’t mention how much older their parents also were at death). But he says a lot about his hobbies and volunteer work, nothing at all about his career, which suggests even the parts that don’t talk about his death were written in the last decade or so. I suspect that if he had written it while his mother was still alive, he would have said some things about God for her sake; since she isn’t, he didn’t. It just never occurred to me to ask him if he knew Christ–having met him in church, and talking with his parents about Christ, I assumed he was a believer too. (I did suspect another sibling probably was not, but this one put on the Christian “front.”)

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  46. RKessler, sorry for the loss of your uncle. I only have one left, and I’m trying to keep in touch with him. He’ll turn 90 in a week and a half, and I have it on my calendar to call him. He’s the only one of the siblings even to make 80 . . .

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  47. Good article 6….thanks for sharing. We have a screen at church, no hymnals. I am not a fan of Chris Tomlin’s music and for me personally I am uncomfortable with the lyrics of a few songs saying God is roaring like a lion. There are some songs I cannot sing due to the lyrics.
    The worship team leading worship have practiced their songs and at times go off on their own with the melody….we are at a disadvantage of not knowing what the next note might be. I guess that is when we are making a joyful noise 🙃

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  48. Sorry for the loss of your friend, Cheryl, and your uncle, RK. Praying God’s comfort for you both.

    ******
    I just typed out the long story of what happened with X this weekend, and then realized it wasn’t that interesting of a story. 🙂 The gist of it is that X changed the usual plan of when he would pick up Boy (not having him overnight Friday, but picking him up this morning), telling this to Boy on the phone, not notifying any adult (his mom or me). Boy had misunderstood what he said, thinking he would still see him yesterday afternoon for a while, which led to some frustration as we waited. (When I am expecting a text to tell me he is here, I keep checking my phone to make sure I haven’t missed a text, as my phone doesn’t always give the tone that a text has come in.)

    After my eventually texting him and finding out that he wasn’t coming, I texted again to ask if he would be picking him up today. He did not reply.

    So we were taken by surprise this morning when he texted that he would be here soon to pick up Boy. None of us were even dressed for the day yet. Nightingale and I were both irritated by this, and she had me text him “This kind of information needs to be communicated in advance.”

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  49. Recently, Nightingale and I were talking about her best friend Stephanie, whom she first met in kindergarten. They were friends for a few years, but then drifted apart, and met again eight or nine years ago when Emily applied to work at Claire’s, and Stephanie was the assistant manager there. They quickly reconnected and became best friends again.

    Stephanie has visited our home several times, and she and I get along very well. We could chat and enjoy each other’s company even if Nightingale weren’t here.

    Nightingale told me that sometimes she will be telling Stephanie about something that I did or said that annoyed her, and Stephanie will reply, “Awww. I love your mom!” 😀

    Nice to know my daughter’s best friend is a fan of mine. 🙂

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  51. Somehow in my “recipes” folder on my computer, I had a salmon recipe with Kin’s name on it. Though the recipe was for grilling on the stove, I baked it, but I used Kim’s recipe for the marinade and someone else’s for the time and temperature, and it was exquisite. My husband doesn’t like fish, and he’s sick, so I was able to have sheer luxury for a lot cheaper than going out to eat. And I have a couple of servings of it left.

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  52. Here’s an interesting piece about the context of an oft-quoted verse. (This site has several of these “Context Matters” posts. I’ve read several of them.)

    “Perhaps you’ve heard the injunction to avoid the appearance of evil. You won’t find the phrase in most modern English Bibles, as it’s a holdover from the King James translation of 1 Thessalonians 5:22. The ESV commands us to “abstain from every form of evil,” and the CSB simplifies it further to “stay away from every kind of evil” (1 Thess 5:22, CSB). This verse could be called upon to support just about any set of personal prohibitions, including interacting with someone of the opposite sex, dining at a tavern, choosing one’s friends, and forming political alliances, to name a few.

    But is that what the Apostle Paul had in mind?”

    Context Matters: Abstain from All Appearance of Evil

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  53. Cheryl. I lost that recipe. Can you share it with me?

    Amazing things to be found on YouTube. I can now roll my pant into a self folding “tube” for more efficient packing. I can do the same with shirts, t-shirts, and shhhh. Even underwear.

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  55. Cheryl, that’s sad with your friend.

    RK, my condolences on the death of your uncle. My uncles have all passed, too — my mom’s brothers within the last decade, and my dad’s brother in 1944, which uncle, of course, I never knew but heard lots about.

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  58. Morning! That is a beautiful scene up there Kare! Brings back memories of my Uncle’s little farm in the winter. We would hike the back portion of the property where the creek ran through. I can still hear the trickling of the water over the little dam we kids fashioned out of the near by stones 😊 thankful for sweet memories of childhood…..
    Have a blessed day ya’ll…we will be heading to church shortly. Sun is shining and it is predicted to get up in the forties today!

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  61. Another lovely snow shot! It really is pretty to photograph, and I’m inclined to want a niece snow or two in the winter just for that reason, but I don’t need dozens of snows or for it to hang around a week or two. 🙂 Right now it’s just rain here, and for the moment none of that either.

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  62. All that snow!

    And we prepare for a week’s worth of rain right when we scheduled for the new roof to be put on. I know we have to be scheduled, but with our record of plan failures, it seems a bit ridiculous to schedule anything.

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  64. Re: the article on worship – It becomes difficult to teach new songs on a worship screen, primarily because there are no notes.

    Since not too many people study music anymore, having the notes is not advantageous. It just confuses the user. We have hymnals that have just the lyrics. Or you can use the one or two with the music. I like seeing the whole song since many hymns have a contextual flow from verse to verse. The church we used to attend, where 3 of my children live, have the screen and the books so everyone is happy.

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  65. Sorry to hear of the losses suffered by RKesler and Cheryl. Somehow in the winter it seems to me to be a bit sadder than other times to lose someone to death. I suppose it relates to the thought of being laid to rest in a very cold earth. It is not a logical thought to consider that, but on some emotional level I feel that way.

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  66. I have appreciation for the screens strictly from a poor vision standpoint. The screens are helpful for me, and as we have many older people in our area, the screens make for an easier worship service for them.

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  67. Peter, even if not many people read music, surely some people “read” music enough at least to see that the notes are going up or that only men sing on this line, or whatever. And some people read music (and some sing parts), and their knowing what to sing should help the rest. I read music enough that I find the music helpful and feel lost on a new song if I have no idea what it will do next. If I have the notes, I can at least try and I can sing softly until I understand the tune enough to sing more loudly. I’m guessing virtually no one sings in parts with words only on a screen, since no one would know what the other parts do at all–they’d have to make up their own harmonies.

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  68. Twenty three year old was asked to lead music again this morning. Interesting as the song lady selected the music from the hymnal and daughter cannot read music at all. But she is willing and the congregation is willing to step up with leading her leading music. It works.

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  69. It is important to check your spam and junk email folders before deleting them. I have sometimes found important emails in there.

    A lady I know had her car insurance cancelled because she didn’t receive a bill, and thus did not pay it. She did not receive anything in the mail about it until she had been driving without insurance for several months!

    The company had switched her to “paperless” without her consent. She said that she never received a bill in email, either. I asked if she checks her spam folder. Nope, she does not. Now she thinks that the bills and notifications must have gone to her spam folder, so she never saw them. 😦

    I check mine every day. Recently, an email from a contact at my life insurance company was in there. (I’ve finally gotten around to changing the beneficiary from Hubby, with the girls as contingent beneficiaries, to the girls as primary beneficiaries. Also changing the checking account the payment comes from so I can finally close out the joint account Hubby and I had.)

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  70. My condolences, as well, Cheryl and RK. I was recently found out that my step-cousin who went to college with me) died by reading a group email, which was about something else. Then my sister called to say my mom’s sister is dying, but she will not be bringing mom up to visit or attend the funeral. They live in Florida and my aunt still lives in MN. I had heard she was sick, but nothing else. My sister promised to send information right away, but I have heard nothing and it is almost two weeks. I think the call was about defending her decision. This is not unusual for her. I used to find out my dad was in the hospital on vague fb posts. So frustrating. I was surprised to hear my former SIL was hospitalized, but was glad her son was willing to give me some information. Communication should be easier with all we have available, but you have to have a will to do it.

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  71. OK, I’m not feeling the greatest, and my brain power is rather sluggish today, but you’re saying you found out via a group email about something else that your step-cousin had died? Sort of an oh-by-the-way…? Or a mention of the deceased like everyone reading was assumed to have already known about the individual’s passing?

    For a few seconds, I thought the death occurred because of reading a shocking email. 😉

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  72. Fellowship was sweet this morning at church. Our two mountain men boys will be coming home with us next week for lunch after church. They are contemplating a career move and may not be around here much longer…in His Hands we trust them to be and seek His guidance as are they.
    Cheryl I pray your friend did indeed know the saving grace of our Lord. And rk I am sad to hear of the passing of your uncle. I know how that last living aunt/uncle/grandparent leaves such a void here on this earth 😢
    Having small group here this Tuesday and I must prepare a meal for 15….the older I get the more I do not like to cook and I am running out of ideas for feeding a crowd!

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  74. Cheryl – I understand your wanting the notes. I like having them, though my site reading isn’t the greatest. I sing by ear and can pick out the melody after the first verse. I also used to sing tenor in choir, so I learned how to make my own harmonies. I wish now that I had learned to play piano or guitar when I was young.

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  77. Appreciate the point that the screens can be helpful for those with vision issues.

    I agree with Cheryl, one doesn’t need to fully “read” music to get it (enough) for it to be a helpful aid (notes going up, down, etc.). Today I decided to use the hymnal for those songs that were in the book, enjoyed it for a change. It takes a bit more “work” to look up pieces, and is a bit cumbersome as a result, and I think that’s why most of us fall into the habit (at our church) of relying on the screens or the words (only) written in our bulletins.

    Stayed for SS, we’re going through the Westminster Confession of Fath, and after that I stayed another hour+ gabbing with 2 other people. We set out to solve the country’s problems but didn’t succeed.

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  79. Peter, me too.
    I took guitar lessons while I was in the AF at Biloxi, Miss. But I only had two lessons.
    There is no place to practice when you live in a barracks. And there isn’t much worse than listening to someone practice on an instrument.
    We put up with that when Chuck took violin lessons.
    fortunately, we could close a door and shut out most of it.

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  80. This isn’t quite the same as not having been informed of someone’s death, but it did bother me. . .

    My dad died first, in late December, 2004, and my mom died in June of 2010. The plan was that they would both be cremated, and after Mom died, their ashes would be mixed together and scattered in the ocean. Being executor of her will, as well as the older child, my brother took care of having Mom cremated and took possession of her ashes afterwards.

    A couple months or so later, an email from my SIL mentioned how they had taken a boat somewhere and scattered Mom and Dad’s ashes in the water. I was so taken aback, and hurt, that I had not been told ahead of time, nor invited to come along. When I told Nightingale about it, she said, “That’s so messed up!”

    Writing about that, and thinking about my non-relationship with my brother, reminded me of the time I was at my niece’s college graduation party, shortly after Mom’s death, but before they cut off ties with us. A friend of theirs from their neighborhood, who had known them for quite a while, was surprised to learn that I was Brother’s sister. She said she thought he was an only child. That was sadly surprising to me, and yet it shouldn’t have surprised me.

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  81. Kizzie, that sounds like it was difficult. And yes, messed up.

    One of our community activists – she was probably in her late 80s and hadn’t been active for a while; my sense also was that she was experiencing some dementia in her last years as she’d call me from time to time and she sounded confused – passed recently and I’d been in touch with her daughter (there is also a son) about putting something in the paper. Her mom was quite active through the ’80s and ’90s (and the ’70s but that was before I came to this community). She was a force of nature, as I told her daughter; she was very strong-willed and if you were a politician you didn’t want her as an enemy.

    So after getting in touch with the daughter I found out that there had been some very hard feelings left behind, stemming from a few years ago when an unrelated person was asked by the mom to come in and take care of some things (like selling the family home when the mom, a widow, up and moved in with the former assemblyman for this area, all kind of startling to be honest — and the kids didn’t want the house sold, from the sounds of it, but she’d tapped this community friend to handle everything instead of her kids). Anyway, the daughter seems very alienated and hasn’t even provided the bio info I needed yet (she said she didn’t want the service times announced), so we may not end up doing anything on her passing at this point. It’s hard enough to lose a parent, but so much harder when there’s an aftermath that’s so unpleasant.

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  82. The more recent photo reminds me of a visit to NY for Christmas some years ago (early 2000s). There was a forest area behind my friends’ farm so the oldest daughter and I headed out for a walk through the trees one morning. It was like a magical fairy land, ice and snow glistening everywhere, it really was beautiful! I took some photos (old-fashioned non-digital camera at that time was all I had with me). I should get them on my computer one of these days.

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  83. My former roommate took classical guitar lessons for several years and was really quite good. After she got married, her husband was annoyed by her practicing so she went onto the roof of their apartment every day after she got home from work to play.

    Not long after that, she had to give it up when she was diagnosed with carpal tunnel and went through a surgery. Picking up the guitar again wasn’t a good idea, apparently.

    I’ve taken guitar lessons here and there, keep meaning to get back to them but haven’t yet. It’s like my plan to go back to (really) learning Spanish.

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