57 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-22-20”

  2. Mumsee: You mentioned on the Daily Thread that your ninety year old dad hates Trump so much that he will vote against him?
    Are you telling us that he will vote for a Communist?’
    I hear that lots of people have an undefined hatred for Trump.
    What is the source of this hatred for someone he has never seen?

    I’ll grant you, I have mentioned on the Politics thread a couple of times. His mouth runs ahead of his brain. Someday it will cause lots of trouble.
    But, as for now, he is the best one running.

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  3. Good morning. We have a layer of frost adorning everything outside. No rain is scheduled for today and tomorrow but it will return on Monday. I just saw on the news a story about a car that was being overtaken by a flash flood. A police officer was able to pull two people out through a window. One guy was rather large, and I was afraid he’d get stuck like Pooh Bear after eating too much honey. But the officer managed. I felt sorry for them in all that cold water, but so thankful they escaped.

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  4. Voter registration deadline to vote in our primary is the 24th. My friend Karen needs to locate her marriage license so she can get her driver’s license or other ID to vote. I have told her I will help her. In the general election we will cancel each other’s vote, but living where we live, my vote does not count for much except as a number on the losing side. It does seem odd to be in such a blue area in a red state.

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  5. Good morning. Scanning back through yesterday’s comments, my little town borders on “fruits and nuts”. In 1894 we were founded on Henry George’s Single Tax Theory. The land is owned by the “colony” and the owner owns the building. Try to explain that to the mortgage company. We recently received notice that the Single Tax office was going to foreclose in us. The mortgage company sent the tax payment to the county instead of the colony. Luckily the woman at the colony was familiar with our mortgage company.
    Anyway most of downtown is owned by the colony and most of the re-development is focusing on condos on top and retail/restaurants on bottom. This is causing a giant problem because there isn’t enough parking. This is also made worse because there is a junior college downtown where the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education used to be. Now they are talking about blocking off downtown and making it pedestrian only. That will also cause a problem for some of the stores like the grocery store and the pharmacy.
    Another problem is the city made a deal with a hotel chain to build a parking garage. In a moment of stupidity they allowed the chain to make the rules. The first 2 levels are hotel parking only and any residents have to park on the upper levels. ????? Why not have valet parking and park the guests on the upper levels?

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  6. Chas, we have no idea why he hates the President so much. He is thinking of voting for Blooms whatever. He says it is because he gets his news from CSPan. A very strange thing to see in my dad. But the hatred has blinded him, He says the people supporting Trump are very stupid because he hears them on the call ins to CSpan. That is also very out of character for my dad.

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  7. We’ve seen the same thing in formerly congenial family members who retired and live with the TV on cable TV channels all day long.

    Our family never discusses politics and this duo have gone rabid on the subject. When one made a terribly insulting comment about Christians on FB, I was really hurt. I finally asked, “Is that how you see me? If so, I have apologies and confession to make.”

    He backstepped away from that, telling me of course not, I’m wonderful and so forth, but my heart hurt.

    Turning off the TV would help, but they don’t do that even if we are visiting. It hurts.

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  9. I really don’t understand the vicious hatred held by those who oppose trump.
    I likely opposed Obama as much as they do Trump. But I had no personal animosity toward him. I just wanted him gone, that’s all.
    He said he was converted from Islam to Christianity by his pastor. The one who says,
    “not God Bless America, but God Damm America.” He later dropped fellowship with that pastor. likely for political reasons.

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  10. I blogged the question. This is what I got. Seems Jeremiah Wright blames America for 911

    — Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor says blacks should not sing “God Bless America” but “God damn America.” The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years at the ..

    The mainstream media was all for him..

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  11. I think most of those who hate Trump do so from the media. As Chas says, none of us really know him except in that sense. I have several relatives that fall into that camp. They seem to be the ones who insist on talking politics and assuming the worst. If all I knew was what main stream media says about him, I would assume the worse, too. I doubt anyone watching just CSpan would come to that conclusion, however.

    I found it interesting in reading Alice Johnson’s book on her prison experience and pardoning to find she was horrified and sadden when President Trump got into office. She thought she would never be helped by him. She only heard how racist and hateful he was. Yet, he did not act according to what she heard.

    One reason I like to hear actual speeches and debates is to not get into the 20 second sound bites that distort what is really said or done, for that matter. I have the luxury of time to do that, though.

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  12. Kim, we also are building the so-called “mixed use” developments — housing on top, retail/commercial on ground floor — and many without enough parking. The theory in the sagging downtown makes sense — bring residents into the downtown core and thriving shops, restaurants and other businesses will follow to serve. It’s a built-in customer base for new shops offering all kinds of goods and services.

    The national political climate is simply not conducive to civil discourse anymore, there are “hot” emotions on both sides. I live in a very blue county-city & state (and work in a leftward industry) where it’s simply “assumed” everyone hates Trump. People often just start engaging strangers in a political conversation based on the assumption that, of course, we here are all on the same (political) ‘page.’

    And social media is filled with emotional political comments on both sides.

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  13. We’re getting a “little bit” of rain this morning, not a lot. But we’ll take it. Maybe next fall/winter will be a better one for us. This has been a very dry year (again).

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  14. My dad never listens to main stream media, just CSpan. He also was disgusted when Kavanaugh was appointed. Saying the man lost his cool during questioning so is not good judge material. Dad does not have a social life other than mostly conservative relatives. That is why I wonder if it is a bigger matter than just people. A spiritual battle.

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  15. DJ, we are not getting rain so I guess it moved over your way!😆
    Yes, we are seeing things like the parking lots taking advantage of people like at my dental office where parking was free until the highrise was put in with a parking deck. Now it costs $11 for me to park. Maybe my dentist will be losing clients over that. He is getting older so maybe some dwindling of clients does not matter.
    My friend Karen watches tv all the time because of her health issues. So of course her views on Trump are slanted. I keep my mouth shut when she says things like our country is going backwards. No need to fight about mainline media stupor. She is quite lovable otherwise so I overlook some quips. I am just that deplorable.

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  16. Good morning. Another day at home — can it be? — two days in a row! Will wonders ever cease? 🙂

    Yesterday was delightful (other than I ate some ice cream, and that definitely turned into a digestive no-no; I never know when that’s going to happen; it’s not a consistent reaction).

    Anyway, the extra time with the kids was so nice. We even got some decent weather, despite the very chilly way the day started out — the temperature eventually got above freezing, the wind died down, and we were blessed with sunshine — and got outside for some glorious rays. 🙂

    Webinar yesterday on mindful practice was beset with technical difficulties. Less than one minute in, the audio went out. They tried fixing it, and switching us to a different platform, but nothing worked. I logged out after about 12 minutes of them trying and failing to get sound.

    The chat box was open, and lots of people were writing in that they couldn’t hear it, wished they could read lips (video of the presenter worked fine), etc. I had to laugh at one of the comments written by a webinar attendee about the tech problems: “Iowa caucuses, anyone?” LOL.

    The organizers sent an apology email and said they will rebroadcast next Friday at the same time. Hopefully the tech issues will be worked out by then.

    In the meanwhile, on to more piano practice for me today. Our next piano concert is March 28, and I’ve picked out a Brahms Rhapsody (Op. 79, No. 2, for those interested in the details) that I performed my senior year of high school in my teacher’s student recital. I’d also used the same piece to audition for a spot on the roster of the main piano professor at the university I was about to attend. There are a lot of fond memories associated with that piece, so I thought I’d dig it back out, dust it off, and get it memorized again to perform next month. A lot of it (maybe 70%) is still in my memory, so I’m working more on the murky middle where some of my memory slips are happening.

    Yesterday I got myself into something of an endless loop around page 7: my faulty memory kept hitting the chord that would take me back to about page 3 instead of forward to page 8. I don’t want to turn a 10-page piece into 15! 🙂

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  17. Mumsee- If your dad is an economic conservative, then there isn’t a current candidate he could vote for. Trump and the GOP are spending like there’s no limit, raising the deficit higher and higher, albeit at a slower rate than the Democrats.

    As for me, I like most of what Trump has accomplished, and will probably hold my nose to vote for him, or not vote for any presidential candidate this year. However, I will vote down ballot for the good conservative candidates I find. As for people of moral integrity, they don’t seem to run for office any more.

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  18. Cspan is good in that it airs raw footage (committee meetings, etc.) for the most part. It’s a lot for viewers to wade through, very time consuming, but I don’t remember a lot of filters on that channel. I haven’t seen it that recently, though.

    Janice, seems like your dental office should be able to validate the parking (but I think I’d asked that before and now I can’t remember what you said). I’d hate to pay, too, just to go to an appt that’s a necessity. The office would probably have to pay some kind of monthly charge to be able to do that for clients.

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  19. Being in a massively-blue state (not a “swing” state), we have the luxury of not casting a vote either way for president — it makes no difference in the national result. California will go blue and take us all with it for the electoral college process.

    I think being vocally anti-Trump also can be a way of being seen as one of the “cool kids” where I live.

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  20. Kim, earlier this week you posted a TED talk by Simon Sinek: Start with Why. A great talk; thanks for posting it.

    I reexamined my website homepage after watching his video, and noticed I had a lot of What, and some How, but practically no Why. So I changed my “About” paragraph at the top of the page, next to my picture, to why I love teaching piano.

    That’s such a great concept, to go from the inside out, and to think about this that he said: “People don’t buy what you do. People buy why you do it. … The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”

    (Yes, I took notes.) 🙂

    Thanks for sharing. The talk was quite inspirational to me, and also fired me up (even more than usual) for teaching this week!

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  21. Had to check that I wasn’t on the political thread.

    Went to see Youngest yesterday and had a good visit. A couple of extended family birthdays were being celebrated, so Youngest mad a fancy cake that had marzipan. It was either that or the Brussels sprouts dish with pecans that caused my mouth to start to tingle and swell. I can eat almonds and pecans normally, but some pollen allergies can cause cross reactions, so I think that may be what happened. I was all right, but now I have another thing to be careful about.

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  22. Oh, Roscuro, that allergy sounds dangerous. I saw a news story recently about a new treatment for peanut allergies. A Sunday school teacher who was a co-teacher with me had a daughter with peanut allergies. It was a really scary thing to me, even worse than the asthma I dealt with when Wesley was young. The asthma he had was related to colds so I knew when to expect flare-ups. But those nut allergies, and seafood, too, happen so suddenly.

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  24. I am working on getting some contest entries ready for the conference I plan to attend in March. It costs $25.00 per category to enter. I think the money goes to a good cause so I don’t mind the expense.

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  25. Roscuro, that’s the thing with allergies; new ones come up all the time. I have Oral Allergy Syndrome (which has to do with birch tree pollen and other stuff) and am allergic to so many raw foods now and more every year. Thankfully I can still eat most of them cooked – not nuts though.

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  26. Happy Saturday…it is in the 40’s…snow is moving in after midnight. I forgot bread yesterday…the grocery was nuts! Home sweet home 😊
    If my Dad were alive I do believe he would be in a tizzy over this upcoming vote. Staunch Democrat he was and he only voted Republican once in his lifetime….Eisenhower! He did admit to me that he was tempted to vote for Reagan but thought him to be too much an actor 🤭

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  27. NancyJ. My parents were Democrats.
    Until Eisenhower. Once you step out of line, they have lost you.
    That looms a big problem for Democrats now.
    If you can do it once, you can do it forever.

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  28. DJ, in the words of Dickens in 1842:
    “Quiet people avoid the question of the Presidency, for there will be a new election in three years and a half, and party feeling runs very high: the great constitutional feature of this system being , that directly the acrimony of the last election is over, the acrimony if the next one begins; which an unspeakable comfort to all strong politicians and true lovers of their country…” (‘American Notes’)

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  29. Phos, the problem is that the acrimony of the last election is not over. And likely won’t be. I really believe Trump, regardless of other factors, actually loves America.
    I question that of some of the others. Especially Obama.

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  30. My folks were democrats, too. My Dad really did not like Reagan when he was governor. Dad was in the mental health profession and Reagan closed a lot of the state hospitals.

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  31. I remember my maternal grandmother worrying out loud that Reagan might get us into a war. Other than that comment, I don’t remember what the political persuasions of my grandparents may have been.

    My parents have been lifelong Republicans, as far as I know (though I recall my dad couldn’t decide whether to vote for Ford or Carter in 1976; he said he might just flip a coin to decide — I don’t know whether that’s what he did or not 😉 ).

    I know my mom’s two brothers both were conservative, at least later in life, and my uncle who lived in California couldn’t get out of that state fast enough after my aunt died in 2011, and get back to the Midwestern red state in which he’d been born.

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  33. Kate, my mother has a sensitivity to pecans, but she can eat them in small amounts without getting symptoms. I am hoping that I am like her in getting just transient symptoms and not a full blown anaphylaxis.

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  34. From the article link above:

    A new law in California bans the use, in official documents, of the term “at risk” to describe youth identified by social workers, teachers, or the courts as likely to drop out of school, join a gang, or go to jail. Los Angeles assemblyman Reginald B. Jones-Sawyer, who sponsored the legislation, explained that “words matter.” By designating children as “at risk,” he says, “we automatically put them in the school-to-prison pipeline. Many of them, when labeled that, are not able to exceed above that.”

    The idea that the term “at risk” assigns outcomes, rather than describes unfortunate possibilities, grants social workers deterministic authority most would be surprised to learn they possess. Contrary to Jones-Sawyer’s characterization of “at risk” as consigning kids to roles as outcasts or losers, the term originated in the 1980s as a less harsh and stigmatizing substitute for “juvenile delinquent,” to describe vulnerable children who seemed to be on the wrong path. The idea of young people at “risk” of social failure buttressed the idea that government services and support could ameliorate or hedge these risks.

    Instead of calling vulnerable kids “at risk,” says Jones-Sawyer, “we’re going to call them ‘at-promise’ because they’re the promise of the future.” The replacement term—the only expression now legally permitted in California education and penal codes—has no independent meaning in English. Usually we call people about whom we’re hopeful “promising.” The language of the statute is contradictory and garbled, too. “For purposes of this article, ‘at-promise pupil’ means a pupil enrolled in high school who is at risk of dropping out of school, as indicated by at least three of the following criteria: Past record of irregular attendance . . . Past record of underachievement . . . Past record of low motivation or a disinterest in the regular school program.” In other words, “at-promise” kids are underachievers with little interest in school, who are “at risk of dropping out.” Without casting these kids as lost causes, in what sense are they “at promise,” and to what extent does designating them as “at risk” make them so?

    This abuse of language is Orwellian in the truest sense, in that it seeks to alter words in order to bring about change that lies beyond the scope of nomenclature. Jones-Sawyer says that the term “at risk” is what places youth in the “school-to-prison pipeline,” as if deviance from norms and failure to thrive in school are contingent on social-service terminology. The logic is backward and obviously naive: if all it took to reform society were new names for things, then we would all be living in utopia.

    I remember my grandmother calling youth in trouble with the law “juvenile delinquents.” The term “at-risk” sounded a lot milder than that when it came into use. Now even calling a kid “at-risk” is a no-no?

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  35. 6 Arrows, I remember when it became socially inappropriate to refer to a child as being handicapped, especially handicapped, and the term “special needs” or just “special” came out. My brother and sister and I were 12 to 14 or so, and “special” became our shorthand back-handed compliment. “Well, Cheryl is really special.” If even children can see through the nonsense, what’s even the point of doing violence to language.

    And my oldest brother didn’t like it when “handicapped” was changed to “disabled.” He thought that “handicap” comes with a connotation of being limited in some way, but “disabled” means “unable” and is actually a stronger term. “Handicapped” simply means limited, and with a sense of it being from factors beyond one’s control–it isn’t an insulting word. But we have become a culture in which everything is an insult.

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  36. Yeah, Cheryl — how can “dis” (or “dys”) -anything be better than “handi” (or “handy”) -something? I always wondered how “they” improved anything by changing handicapped to disabled.

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  37. 1st Arrow just got home. He’ll be here tonight and tomorrow and go back home Monday. Haven’t seen him since Christmas (well, since the latest of the family Christmas gatherings, which was in early January). Time sure flies!

    Enjoy your weekend and the start of next week, wanderers. I will be enjoying the visit from son (and the event 6th Arrow and one other piano student of mine is playing in tomorrow). Another fun weekend!

    Have a blessed day tomorrow!

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  38. Roscuro, presidential elections are sport as much as anything else in the US, an unfolding drama every 4 years. Emotional, crazy and quintessentially American, the contests may be filled with angst and disappointment, they’ll make most of us crazy from time to time, but they are our national touchstone.

    We apparently did get some hail and thunder here this afternoon, but I was napping and it may have passed over our area anyway, it did hit a neighboring city. There also was a downpour involved, 1″ of rain — that’s a lot for us these days. 😦

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  39. I feel like I am just living in another world. Lauraine Snelling wrote books about folks in Blessing, North Dakota. The books are good and well written. Just about real life. Well there are 19 of them. I have read many of them before, but decided to read them again in order. So I have been living in Blessing for the last six weeks or so. In some ways they are all one book, though each one is complete. You certainly get to know the people. The faith and prayers are wonderful. Living next to the church with my own key to the library has its advantages.

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  40. Jo, that sounds awesome. Not familiar with the books but it sounds like you’re enjoying a peaceful and restful season in those circumstances.

    Re politics as sport (spectator, participatory or contact, depending on the timing of the election and circumstances) — as WSJ commentator Peggy Noonan (the piece is linked by me on the political thread) put it: “The surprise of politics—it’s a thing that can still make you feel romantic about it.”

    I suppose it was Theodore White’s “The Making of the President” books (“The Making of the President 1960 is the book that revolutionized—even created —modern political journalism” – Amazon) that got me hooked on U.S. national politics as strategy.

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  41. My parents were republican to the core. That being said, my dad taught me you can only get as good of politician as you can afford.
    He also taught me that sometimes politics were for entertainment purposes only. This is something I haven’t been able to convey to Mr P. He gets way too worked up.

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  42. We have family with oral allergy syndrome. One of our grandsons who was in a boat for weeks at a time was told he could probably get away with eating almonds when he was out in the boat. He did not try it and always had an Epi pen.

    His father ate smoked almonds and never gave a thought to grabbing a bag of fresh almonds (for baking) he found in the pantry one evening. He walked in to where my daughter was already in bed and told her his lips were tingling and tongue swelling. Fortunately, She was able to grab some Benadryl and a couple of tablets stopped the symptoms. Lesson learned: cooked ones okay, raw ones dangerous.

    My husband has never been able to figure out all the connections with food. It is a challenge. I hope this won’t happen again, roscuro. That is scary.

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  45. I remember visiting Iowa (including a stop at the Clay County Fair in my mom’s old stomping grounds) one year (fall ’87 I believe it was) as the state was just starting to gear up for the upcoming caucuses. Game time.

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  46. Well, for much of the country the primaries are totally useless. For Indiana, for instance, the primaries are so late (or were, last time–I have no idea that date this year) that I didn’t even bother following the political news, because I knew they’d have all dropped out by the time it got to Indiana. Sure enough, even one or two of the names on the ballot were no longer eligible candidates (I think I may have voted for one of the ones who had already dropped out, even knowing my vote wouldn’t count, but I don’t remember). I doubt we’ll even bother with the primaries this year, unless we hear of some important local issue.

    Personally, I think I prefer letting it really happen at the convention. Or if you’re going to have primaries, at least do them mostly all at once (perhaps on three or four weekends in a six-week period–allow enough time between batches for the candidates to move around a bit, but none of this “most of the field has dropped out, and you’re really not involved at all”). And rotate which states are first, maybe going east to west one time, west to east the next, north to south and south to north, and the last time start in the middle and work out, and then start all over again.

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  47. Good snowy Colorado morning to you! Staying in this day as we are experiencing an Albuquerque low. That means we are getting hit! Oh my how gorgeous it is in this forest…low visibility, snow gently falling as the wind has subsided for a bit. Time to sit back and drink in the beauty our Lord has gifted to us 😊

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  48. Yesterday, Saturday, driving north on I-5 I saw snow on the Coast Range. South of Santa Nella but north of Lost Hills. Some of us former Angelinos may know those landmarks (gas stops).

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  52. DJ – I started out as a Democrat, became a Republican and now am an Independent.

    Same here. My dad shook JFK’s hand in 1960. He and a friend drove 120 miles just to see him. My aunt was a Democratic delegate to the Arizona state convention in 1968. She was the one who registered me, so I registered as a D. Interestingly, I voted for Ford in my first election, and have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. Now I never will, but vote either R or independent/3rd party.

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  53. We went on a drive last night, looking for wolves. We saw lots of tracks, thousands and thousands of stars and then it started snowing. We still don’t know where those big flakes were coming from as we could see stars everywhere around and above us. It was a fun, beautiful drive.

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  54. Wolves are awesome. Just not in my neighborhood, please. 🙂

    60 Minutes did a piece on the return of the wolves to Yellowstone which is worth watching. Nearby ranchers, however, aren’t too thrilled.

    Nature always will present a challenge needing a balance.

    Our sermon today was on Jonah — with the reminder that we should never hold people in contempt, but always desire their redemption for their souls no matter how fallen they and their deeds are.

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  55. Kizzie, our dogs are home all day without going outside when we’re gone. When we’re home, they will act bored and want to go out sometimes, but mostly they sleep all day. One is old and one is young. If I were you, I would push the length of time you let Janie out longer each time until you’re only letting her out mid-day. That should be quite sufficient for her.

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  56. My parents, my brother, and I were never Democrats. Mostly we have been Republican, but my father may have voted Independent at some point .I am trying to use my bifocals on Art”s old phone and can not tell if I am hitting commas or periods.

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