AJ doesn’t count. He’s always first.
I notice that Cheryl stayed up so she could post the header for today.
The big oak behind my house didn’t turn color.
It turned loose. I have to rake them up.
That is an odd tree. One of the largest trees I have seen with the smallest leaves.
Kizzie, I experienced lingual nerve damage, of which you spoke yesterday, about 10 years ago. For about six months, my tongue was numb but also hurt. There is a name for that but I forget what it is. It mostly went away but still causes my tongue to burn, sometime more painfully than others.
I have had burning mouth syndrome for years, although I get it less often now than I did before. I think that is about not drinking hot drinks as often. I started chewing sugar free gum for it, which helped. This probably different from what you are talking about, but made me think about it.
Chas, I understand waiting for time to get up. Life turns strange at times and during certain seasons.
Beautiful trees in that photo. Ours were so beautiful this year. Now all is beautifully white except the various shades of the crab apples and the deep grayish greens of the pines. We still have some golden needles on the tamaracks. I am also surprised when I step out and see the exposed alyssum by the house still showing green, bright purple and white. There is snow there and it seems incongruous.
The weather man showed four weather records for October. Warmest day (80), most snow for the month, most snow for the day and most for another day I think. One can only hope for an early spring. 😉
Oh, beautiful trees! We have a maple or two in our neighborhood that turn red. They seem to be the first to turn. For years I couldn’t understand why Canada used red for its maple leaf flag. But in the autumn it’s plain to see why. (I know, it’s the national color, but they could have used green for the leaf and red for the strips.)
Speaking of the Canadian flag, does anyone remember the first time Toronto played in the World Series, and when the game was in Atlanta, the Marines got flack for carrying the Canadian flag upside down onto the field for the national anthems? I guess it made sense to them that the stem should be up. Here’s a video with that episode and four others involving sports and the Canadian flag:
Glorious colors in those trees in the header. ♡
We have some turning but most are still green here.
I went on a lovely prayer walk this morning. The weather was perfect. We saw a lot of Halloween decorations. More reason to pray. And of course many political signs. More reason to pray.
I was up early to meet at 8 a.m. and had no coffee. Now I find I am dosing with Miss Bosley asleep on my lap.
My legs/knees did fine for the walking, but afterwards we chatted in the parking lot and I found one leg felt stiff from just standing in one place.
Morning! What a difference a day makes….we will hit 65 degrees today with too much wind. Tomorrow’s high will be 20 with a half foot of snow…bring it on! Hoping the mountain snow will lay down the horrific fires burning….
That is a beautiful tree up there….that I miss of the Midwest. I had fully expected to see the changing leaves when we were there last month but it was just too early. 😞
On break: Peter, the sugar maples are the ones that turn the reddest red. You can tell a sugar maple in the summer from the red on the leaf stems. The Canadian flag is relatively new, and my parents can remember when it was still the British ensign and all the discussion over what design to use. The red leaf made sense, as the eastern provinces, which are the oldest ones, all have a long history of maple syrup harvesting going back to the First Nations. But my father always wondered why the two stripes were not blue, because the motto is ‘a mare usque ad mare’, “from sea to sea”. As for putting the flag upside down, most Canadians just laugh and shake their heads knowingly over those kind of incidents. We are used to being misunderstood.
As to not using green on the flag, that would not have gone over well, especially in Ontario. Green is the colour of Irish Catholics. Couldn’t use orange for the same reason, as it is the colour of Irish Protestants. Toronto used to have bloody St. Patrick’s Day and Orangemen parades, as Irish immigrants brought their religious conflict across the Atlantic. Our only federal political assassination was of an government minister of Irish origin, Darcy McGee, who was assassinated for defying the Fenians (Irish Catholic separatists). Red is a good neutral colour.
I have lived over 90 years without knowing that green was for Catholics and orange for Protestants.
I wonder how many people I have offended during my lifetime.
Chas, my mom didn’t let us wear green on St Patrick’s Day for just that reason. My arm would be literally sore long before the end of the day because of kids pinching me. The same kid would find reasons to go by my chair repeatedly all day long, leaning in for a pinch each time. Any child in the class who simply forgot to wear green would say “I’m wearing green underwear” and others would say, “Yeah sure, you are,” but they’d stop pinching him. I wasn’t going to lie to get out of being pinched, but boy I hated that.
The funny thing is, green is my favorite color and I actually owned green clothes. In junior high all my peers wore blue jeans (and I mean literally all–I looked around the room once and realized all the other children and the teacher were wearing jeans) and I owned two pairs of slacks, one of them green. Well, one morning on St Patrick’s Day I made the mistake of looking down, noticing I was wearing green, and commenting–and Mom made me go change. I really kicked myself for not just noticing silently! When I told her kids would pinch me, she said, “Just pinch them back!” without realizing that went against the social rules. She probably had no clue how many times her daughter would get pinched; she might have seen it as persecution if she had, but the kids weren’t doing it for religious reasons.
In my teen, after Dad retired, he owned a pale green dress shirt that I liked. One day we were heading off to church and I realized all of us but him were wearing green. I said, “Dad, you should change and wear your green shirt.” He thought it was silly and wasn’t going to, but everyone said yeah, let’s all wear green, and so he did. On the way to church, Mom said, “Oh no, it’s February 17! I hope no one thinks we think it’s St Patrick’s Day and that’s why we’re all wearing green!” If she’d thought of that at home, she might well have made one or two of us change out of green just in case.
The header is a scene outside some nearby apartment buildings. I see those trees when I walk down the street to the pond and the trails, and for a week or so every fall it’s pretty like that, with all of the trees different colors.
My mom used to dress me with some green but would always add a little piece of pinned-on orange fabric when I was in elementary school. We were orange, but were moderate enough to join in with the overall cultural celebration. My grandfather had several of the “orange” men books from earlier generations.
Gorgeous trees! I love fall.
My three weekly “treatments” for the struggling pine tree have been scheduled, the first on is on Oct. 29.
A boy I went to school with would wear one green sock and one orange sock on St Patty’s day…that is when I first learned of the differing colors for Catholic and Protestant….his Mom was Protestant and his Dad Catholic 😊
My school, too, Janice, but we were the orange rebels 🙂 putting on some orange on the sly.
I still haven’t gotten my fall decorations out on the front porch and it’s now almost getting time for Christmas, considering everyone’s decorating way early this year.
When I was young, I still heard of tensions related especially to the Orangemen parade. The Troubles in Northern Ireland were still going on at that point. There were church members and even a pastor I knew who thought the world of Ian Paisley, the firebrand Irish Free Presbyterian minister who stirred up the Irish Protestants every time a peace was proposed with the Catholics in Northern Ireland. When Paisley finally himself drew up an accord with the leader of Sinn Fein, the political Catholic wing that had connections to the IRA (not the Internal Revenue, but the Irish Republican Army who used bombings and other terrorist acts in their separatist movement), many of his followers saw it as a betrayal. But there was unrest in Toronto between the factions for a long time – when Charles Dickens visited the city in 1842, he mentions a recent shooting that occured during a parade, and that the shooter was an Orangemen.
I don’t think I knew about the orange thing until Cheryl mentioned it a long time ago.
But then I live where everyone is Catholic during Mardi Gras and Lent so there’s that
I like to celebrate catholic or Anglican Christmas and Easter but am not opposed to Greek Easter. My favorite services of the church calendar are Christmas Eve and the Easter Vigil on Saturday night.
I grew up Catholic, but never wore green. Mostly I forgot, but if not I assumed it was for those who were Irish.
At that church my mom made centerpieces for the tables for a fall festival. She used both orange and green. Someone mentioned that she must be trying for a peace theme. She laughed and said she just thought orange and green went well together. She had no idea those colors stood for anything.
I had a fun day got both my flu shot and shingles vaccine, so now I have one of those cute Walgreens’ red bandaids on both arms. Carol said she really wanted one of those, she’s seen the ads on TV, so I mentioned that to the pharmacist and she handed me a stack of them to send to Carol, so sweet.
We’ve had a weather alert for flash flooding. I hate that both Art and my brother are on the road at this time when the Emergency Broadcast says to stay off the roads. I have so much to pray about these days.
I notice that when weather is horrible that Amazon leaves packages at the front door and not by the closer obviously used door in the carport. I just don’t get that. The front porch takes more effort for them to get to it. Why do things the easier way?
~ “This day completes my twentieth year: and yet I am good for nothing, and cannot even carry myself forward in the world: three long years I have yet to study in order to qualify myself for business …” — Future President John Quincy Adams, diary, July 11, 1787 ~
Things are pretty much back to normal in my mouth today. There is some soreness from the Novocain shots, like bruising, but that is to be expected, and not too bad. But my body is achy today.
I may or may not have a mildish case of fibromyalgia. It’s never been diagnosed but I have some symptoms of it, and my sister-in-law who was diagnosed with it says she thinks I do.
Over the past few years, I haven’t had much trouble from it, or whatever it is. But whenever there is some kind of “trauma” to my body, aches flare up in my body, especially my neck, shoulders, and upper back. This happens even when I get a minor cold. Should get better soon, though.
This was in one of the email updates I get from World, from a few days ago. (I kept forgetting to share it here.)
“Curtain call
I can still remember the first time I heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio. I was 14 years old, and my dad and I were driving from Phoenix to Fresno, Calif. My father listened to a lot of talk radio, and most of the time I tuned it out. Something about Limbaugh’s funny, bombastic delivery caught my attention. Flash forward a year, and I was wearing a dittohead sweatshirt to school and debating my history teacher in class. (This was back in the 1990s, before school was too “safe” to debate with a teacher.)
Since then, I don’t know that I’ve gone a month of my life without hearing Rush’s voice. Often, not even a week. (When you’ve been listening to someone that long, it only feels natural to call them by their first name). Like millions of other listeners, I was stunned Monday when he opened his show by sharing in a surprisingly upbeat tone that he had a setback in his battle with lung cancer and called his prognosis a death sentence.
“I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said. “It is of immense value, strength, confidence. That’s why I’m able to remain fully committed to the idea that what is supposed to happen will happen when it’s meant to.”
Agree or disagree with Rush’s political views, I hope we’ll all take a minute to pray for a brother in Christ this week.
And there’s a winner, even the the “polls” haven’t closed. Not political polls, but college football games. One person has 8 of 8 correct with 2 games still on, but as moderator of Pigskin Picks, I declare the winner as… Click and find out!
Dj it’s the little things in life…like little red bandages…so sweet ❤️
I have been hit or miss on seeing some posts…has Kevin been around lately? I haven’t seen anything from him?
Kim’s running her air conditioner and I am sitting in from of the fireplace keeping warm 😊
Tomorrow (Oct 25) is an anniversary of sorts. It was 40 years ago my lovely bride and I first began getting to know each other. It was on a CROP Walk, so we spent all day walking 20 miles to raise money for charity and talking. Well, I did most of the talking. She’s a good listener.
Watching Hallmark Christmas movies and getting the Pigskin Pick news . . . It’s quite an evening. And now the channel has been flipped over to the World Series. And the Dodgers are winning 7-6 right now.
I love the Dodgers but also have a soft spot for the underdogs, so I’ve had to smile when TB has won their 2 games; I still think the Dodgers will pull it off, but always better to have a closely-matched series
Good Sunday morning! I will Facebook Live the service today.
Working on my memory verse this a.m.
1 John 2:15
“Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.”
Realizing we are to love people because they belong to God whether or not the individuals recognize that fact.
Does anyone else find this verse convicting? I still have a lot of whittling and purging of possessions to do.
I have also been thinking about all those Halloween decorations. Many are giant blowup plastic type monsters of some sort. They are in yards with signs that sbow support for the Democrat party. That’s the party with the big green movement push if I understand correctly. Logically, that would be a movement away from plastics. Also, I think how many people could be fed who are hungry now with the money that those decorations cost. I see a real disconnect there. But I don’t want to neglect the log in my eye.
DJ, that whole game was nuts. They won several records in it. First player to hit home runs in the first inning in back-to-back World Series games, record consecutive half-innings with at least one run (eight, I think–meaning that each team kept scoring and the lead kept changing), and I’m sure several more.
That last 60 seconds was just crazy, though. Multiple Dodgers missteps. The whole evening it wasn’t clear who would win since they both kept getting the lead, usually just a one-run lead, and being up by one in the bottom of the ninth isn’t a comfortable lead. I mean, worst-case scenario meant they tied the series; it was hardly the seventh game of the series, but still. That last minute looked like watching the Cubs throw away a win. My husband said it looked like Little League. The whole game was interesting, but that part was painful.
Morning! We are in a winter wonderland in this forest and the snow is ever so lightly falling. It’s icy out there and now they are predicting 7 inches of snow this day. Thankful!
Thanks for messaging Kevin for us Janice…. 😊
I may have told you this before. And I don’t know the exact date. But it was a Sunday like this in 1955 that all my friends were at an event in Lexington, SC. We had a friend, Everett Talbert, who was the pastor of a church and a fellow student. For some unknown reason, I didn’t go.
For some unknown reason, I did something I never did before and never did again.
I sat in the balcony of FBC Columbia. All alone.
For some reason, there was a backup on the stairs descending from the balcony after church.
I found myself standing beside Elvera Collina. I knew who she was, but I never attended the department meetings. She and I knew who the other was, but we had never really met.
For some reason, I invited her to lunch. She accepted and we had 97 cent steaks at Walgreen.
I invited her to attend a meeting at Talbert’s church that afternoon.
She accepted and she went with me.’
I then invited her to attend a football game next Saturday.
She agreed.
She was going with someone else at the time. But he went home to Atlanta on most weekends. So I was Elvera’s weekend boyfriend. That went on for about six weeks until Christmas and end of session Breas.
Then she and he broke up and Elvera has been with me since then
We were married for years and I was retired before I started cogitating on the improbability of such a thing happening.
I concluded that it was meant to be.
Cheryl, yes, the last couple minutes were outrageous, but I couldn’t help it, I was laughing through parts of that and actually smiled as the Rays ran around the field, arms outstretched, in sheer happiness. Dodger errors gave that to them, but it happens.
I guess I could laugh because I still trust that the Dodgers will take the series, that they’re the better team here, although who knows? But either way, the series is far from dull and that’s good for the game overall. No one’s going to just “run away” with this one.
But I won’t be laughing if the Dodgers fail to get a World Series win after botching it for a couple previous years.
News
EXCLUSIVE: Trump, confirmed a Presbyterian, now identifies as ‘non-denominational Christian’
A rare exchange about religion-related matters with a president who, while allying closely with evangelical Christian leaders, has spoken little about his own faith.
_______________________
~ WASHINGTON (RNS) — In an exclusive interview with Religion News Service, President Trump said in a written statement that he no longer identifies as a Presbyterian and now sees himself as a non-denominational Christian.
“Though I was confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child, I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian,” Trump, who has repeatedly identified as a Presbyterian in the past, said in a written response to RNS. ~
Chas I love the recounting of your love story with Elvera Collins….a story of our Lord’s beautiful design and gift of marriage.
And … honestly I had no idea Chick FIL A had sauces…the only one I get at the drive through is mayonnaise 😊
However the President identifies his “religious” affiliation I pray he would know our Saviour in depth and relationship….truly knowing Him.
I have heard nothing from Kevin. Maybe they are on vacation? Once a while back he had reached me on Messenger when he saw one of my Facebook friends was someone he knew. He was wondering the connection so that is how I knew he at least use to contact through Messenger.
I had my annual heart checkup at Cleveland Clinic a couple weeks ago. It was different driving down there by myself, about 3 hours each way. Usually Mrs B goes with me but Covid restrictions meant she would have spent the whole day outside the Clinic waiting for me doing…what? So I went by myself. It was a long day, from MRI at 7:30 through echocardiogram, EKG, blood draw, and finally meeting the doctor at 3:30.
I was apprehensive about starting with a new doctor. The one I’ve seen there the last six years left about a year ago. I really liked him and didn’t want to change. But I like the new doctor just as much, I think.
The news was good. She sat down and said everything from the testing looked “beautiful”. That was heartening.
I am finding a different perspective on the Halloween decorations I see this year. They keep reminding me of Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones. The skeletons seem to me this year to be a reminder of human mortality and frailty. A fitting prelude to the season that begins with Advent and ends with Pentecost, just like some of the old folk carols begin by telling how death and sin entered the world before telling of the coming of the Christ into the world. For example, the Norfolk Carol:
“This is the truth sent from above,
the truth of God, the God of love;
therefore don’t turn me from the door
but hearken all, both rich and poor.
The first thing that I will relate,
that God at first did man create;
the next thing which to you I tell –
woman was made with him to dwell.
Then after that ’twas God’s own choice
to place them both in paradise,
there to remain from evil free
except they ate of such a tree.
“But they did eat, which was a sin,
and thus their ruin did begin –
ruined themselves, both you and me,
and all of our posterity.
“Thus we were heirs to endless woes
till God the Lord did interpose;
and so a promise soon did run:
that he’d redeem us by his Son…”
Or this one, from the 1600s:
“Remember, O thou Man, O thou Man, O thou Man, Remember, O thou Man, Thy time is spent. Remember, O thou Man, How thou camest to me then, And I did what I can. Therefore repent.
“Remember Adam’s fall, O thou Man, O thou Man, Remember Adam’s fall From Heaven to Hell. Remember Adam’s fall, How we were condemned all To Hell perpetual, There for to dwell.
“Remember God’s goodness, O thou Man, O thou Man, Remember God’s goodness And promise made. Remember God’s goodness, How his only Son he sent Our sins for to redress. Be not afraid…”
The beginning of the story is as important as the end.
Thankful to see you here, Kevin. It is easy to feel a bit withdrawn these days from my personal experience. Sometimes I have to have a little internal battle with myself to get myself moving in communicating with people. For me it is part of being an introvert coupled with this habitual forced isolation. And then there is the tension of the election mixed in.
We’ve just been getting ad plugs from the former President Obama for a Democrat running for Senator here. Have any other former Presidents done that sort of thing?
We don’t have Chik-Fil-As anywhere around here, so I made a point of stopping at one in Toledo on my way back from Cleveland. They had a very busy drive-through line. I almost left when I saw it. But they actually split it into two parallel lines, had people outside taking orders, and coordinating the merging of the two lines back together before the pick-up window. And they had two more employees taking the food out from the picking window and bringing them to the cars. It was very well-organized and took me less time to get through than most drive-through lines I go through. I don’t know how they make money with as many staff as they have. I hope they pay them well, because they’re always very polite, efficient, and accurate.
I don’t know if we have Chik-Fil-A sauce in stores around here, but Flyboy gets it from Amazon. It’s got a barbecue flavor.
Hello Kevin. Glad to see you back.
It would be good to “check in” occasionally.
I do that every day, just to show up. There is nothing happening around here that I want/need to share.
Some things I want to add to the “Politics” thread. but it shows up only once a week and my issue is old or passed by then.
Jo. I have never been warned that the power would go out. It just goes out without permission.
They just cancelled our potential power outage–surprise!
I had the Sunday school class pray the winds would dissipate–and they did!
Thanks be to God.
I’ve been gone all day. Slept IN until 8 o’clock and barely got myself to church on time.
It’s been a long day at church–I just calculated, other than vacations/evacuation, it’s the longest time I’ve spent at a place other than family houses since March.
First church, then I stayed for Sunday school/hubrid–live or on Zoom–then went to the voter’s meeting–I didn’t get home until nearly 2.
And now am so behind . . . on my Sabbath rest. 🙂
I agree with Kevin, being on a social media fast has been lovely. The day is quieter and I’m not agitated about the politics. A total blessing.
Michelle, I did see on Facebook a couple weeks ago that you had a big fire scare (before my “withdrawal” extended to Facebook). Did it come very close to your house? Have things settled down?
Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.
That’s a verse from the hymn “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”. I thought of it while singing it at church today in relation to my parents. Next Sunday is the 56th anniversary of my mother’s death. A neighbor told my sister that my mother professed Jesus before dying. We hope it was true.
Now my dad is dying, and I pray that the verse above is true for him before he goes.
Last week we were surprised by a sound coming from our phone. I soon realized it was a video call from all three of my daughters. However, when I answered all my daughters were wondering who called whom. I mentioned it was probably our Annika who is four and likes to grab her mom’s phone and push buttons. Not sure if that is what happened, but all of us have a Messenger thread together and somehow the video call thing was pushed. We all laughed, since none of us even realized you could do that.
Today we had another call from oldest daughter and family. Our granddaughter was confirmed and we could not be there. They had a video service, but the confirmands give their testimonies to their families and then the family member lay hands on the confirmand and pray for them. There is no way each family could be shown on the video. We did see the family go up and take pictures after the ceremony. It was nice, then, to get a call later and be able to visit a little in this way. Maybe we will all appreciate being able to be together more when this is all over.
Wandering Views 
Ha!
FIRST! 🙂
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AJ doesn’t count. He’s always first.
I notice that Cheryl stayed up so she could post the header for today.
The big oak behind my house didn’t turn color.
It turned loose. I have to rake them up.
That is an odd tree. One of the largest trees I have seen with the smallest leaves.
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Kizzie, I experienced lingual nerve damage, of which you spoke yesterday, about 10 years ago. For about six months, my tongue was numb but also hurt. There is a name for that but I forget what it is. It mostly went away but still causes my tongue to burn, sometime more painfully than others.
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I have had burning mouth syndrome for years, although I get it less often now than I did before. I think that is about not drinking hot drinks as often. I started chewing sugar free gum for it, which helped. This probably different from what you are talking about, but made me think about it.
Chas, I understand waiting for time to get up. Life turns strange at times and during certain seasons.
Beautiful trees in that photo. Ours were so beautiful this year. Now all is beautifully white except the various shades of the crab apples and the deep grayish greens of the pines. We still have some golden needles on the tamaracks. I am also surprised when I step out and see the exposed alyssum by the house still showing green, bright purple and white. There is snow there and it seems incongruous.
The weather man showed four weather records for October. Warmest day (80), most snow for the month, most snow for the day and most for another day I think. One can only hope for an early spring. 😉
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Oh, beautiful trees! We have a maple or two in our neighborhood that turn red. They seem to be the first to turn. For years I couldn’t understand why Canada used red for its maple leaf flag. But in the autumn it’s plain to see why. (I know, it’s the national color, but they could have used green for the leaf and red for the strips.)
Speaking of the Canadian flag, does anyone remember the first time Toronto played in the World Series, and when the game was in Atlanta, the Marines got flack for carrying the Canadian flag upside down onto the field for the national anthems? I guess it made sense to them that the stem should be up. Here’s a video with that episode and four others involving sports and the Canadian flag:
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Good morning.
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Glorious colors in those trees in the header. ♡
We have some turning but most are still green here.
I went on a lovely prayer walk this morning. The weather was perfect. We saw a lot of Halloween decorations. More reason to pray. And of course many political signs. More reason to pray.
I was up early to meet at 8 a.m. and had no coffee. Now I find I am dosing with Miss Bosley asleep on my lap.
My legs/knees did fine for the walking, but afterwards we chatted in the parking lot and I found one leg felt stiff from just standing in one place.
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Morning! What a difference a day makes….we will hit 65 degrees today with too much wind. Tomorrow’s high will be 20 with a half foot of snow…bring it on! Hoping the mountain snow will lay down the horrific fires burning….
That is a beautiful tree up there….that I miss of the Midwest. I had fully expected to see the changing leaves when we were there last month but it was just too early. 😞
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On break: Peter, the sugar maples are the ones that turn the reddest red. You can tell a sugar maple in the summer from the red on the leaf stems. The Canadian flag is relatively new, and my parents can remember when it was still the British ensign and all the discussion over what design to use. The red leaf made sense, as the eastern provinces, which are the oldest ones, all have a long history of maple syrup harvesting going back to the First Nations. But my father always wondered why the two stripes were not blue, because the motto is ‘a mare usque ad mare’, “from sea to sea”. As for putting the flag upside down, most Canadians just laugh and shake their heads knowingly over those kind of incidents. We are used to being misunderstood.
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As to not using green on the flag, that would not have gone over well, especially in Ontario. Green is the colour of Irish Catholics. Couldn’t use orange for the same reason, as it is the colour of Irish Protestants. Toronto used to have bloody St. Patrick’s Day and Orangemen parades, as Irish immigrants brought their religious conflict across the Atlantic. Our only federal political assassination was of an government minister of Irish origin, Darcy McGee, who was assassinated for defying the Fenians (Irish Catholic separatists). Red is a good neutral colour.
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I have lived over 90 years without knowing that green was for Catholics and orange for Protestants.
I wonder how many people I have offended during my lifetime.
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Chas, my mom didn’t let us wear green on St Patrick’s Day for just that reason. My arm would be literally sore long before the end of the day because of kids pinching me. The same kid would find reasons to go by my chair repeatedly all day long, leaning in for a pinch each time. Any child in the class who simply forgot to wear green would say “I’m wearing green underwear” and others would say, “Yeah sure, you are,” but they’d stop pinching him. I wasn’t going to lie to get out of being pinched, but boy I hated that.
The funny thing is, green is my favorite color and I actually owned green clothes. In junior high all my peers wore blue jeans (and I mean literally all–I looked around the room once and realized all the other children and the teacher were wearing jeans) and I owned two pairs of slacks, one of them green. Well, one morning on St Patrick’s Day I made the mistake of looking down, noticing I was wearing green, and commenting–and Mom made me go change. I really kicked myself for not just noticing silently! When I told her kids would pinch me, she said, “Just pinch them back!” without realizing that went against the social rules. She probably had no clue how many times her daughter would get pinched; she might have seen it as persecution if she had, but the kids weren’t doing it for religious reasons.
In my teen, after Dad retired, he owned a pale green dress shirt that I liked. One day we were heading off to church and I realized all of us but him were wearing green. I said, “Dad, you should change and wear your green shirt.” He thought it was silly and wasn’t going to, but everyone said yeah, let’s all wear green, and so he did. On the way to church, Mom said, “Oh no, it’s February 17! I hope no one thinks we think it’s St Patrick’s Day and that’s why we’re all wearing green!” If she’d thought of that at home, she might well have made one or two of us change out of green just in case.
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The header is a scene outside some nearby apartment buildings. I see those trees when I walk down the street to the pond and the trails, and for a week or so every fall it’s pretty like that, with all of the trees different colors.
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Beautiful picture!
I’m glad our flag is red and white. It just wouldn’t seem right any other colour. I believe I am the same age as our flag 🙂
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The only days I can remember observing when I was growing up were”
Valentine Day
Easter
July 4
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas
New Year
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My mom used to dress me with some green but would always add a little piece of pinned-on orange fabric when I was in elementary school. We were orange, but were moderate enough to join in with the overall cultural celebration. My grandfather had several of the “orange” men books from earlier generations.
Gorgeous trees! I love fall.
My three weekly “treatments” for the struggling pine tree have been scheduled, the first on is on Oct. 29.
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Great podcast from Ed Stetser and David Platt on Platt’s new book, Before You Vote . . .
It is Episode 2.
https://mailchi.mp/edstetzer/racism-and-cultural-power-new-blog-series-755630?e=8a4ee7ad21
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I forget when I learned about orange being the Protestant color, but I didn’t realize the violence had crossed the pond.
I grew up Catholic, so green was required attire at eh parochial school I attended. Now I go neutral. (I don’t own any orange clothing.)
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A boy I went to school with would wear one green sock and one orange sock on St Patty’s day…that is when I first learned of the differing colors for Catholic and Protestant….his Mom was Protestant and his Dad Catholic 😊
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We only did the green thing in my schools.
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My school, too, Janice, but we were the orange rebels 🙂 putting on some orange on the sly.
I still haven’t gotten my fall decorations out on the front porch and it’s now almost getting time for Christmas, considering everyone’s decorating way early this year.
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When I was young, I still heard of tensions related especially to the Orangemen parade. The Troubles in Northern Ireland were still going on at that point. There were church members and even a pastor I knew who thought the world of Ian Paisley, the firebrand Irish Free Presbyterian minister who stirred up the Irish Protestants every time a peace was proposed with the Catholics in Northern Ireland. When Paisley finally himself drew up an accord with the leader of Sinn Fein, the political Catholic wing that had connections to the IRA (not the Internal Revenue, but the Irish Republican Army who used bombings and other terrorist acts in their separatist movement), many of his followers saw it as a betrayal. But there was unrest in Toronto between the factions for a long time – when Charles Dickens visited the city in 1842, he mentions a recent shooting that occured during a parade, and that the shooter was an Orangemen.
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I don’t think I knew about the orange thing until Cheryl mentioned it a long time ago.
But then I live where everyone is Catholic during Mardi Gras and Lent so there’s that
I like to celebrate catholic or Anglican Christmas and Easter but am not opposed to Greek Easter. My favorite services of the church calendar are Christmas Eve and the Easter Vigil on Saturday night.
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The outside unit of my new HVAC hardly makes any noise. Merry Christmas to me.
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Shrimp and Grits with Conecuh Sausage–It’s what’s for dinner
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I grew up Catholic, but never wore green. Mostly I forgot, but if not I assumed it was for those who were Irish.
At that church my mom made centerpieces for the tables for a fall festival. She used both orange and green. Someone mentioned that she must be trying for a peace theme. She laughed and said she just thought orange and green went well together. She had no idea those colors stood for anything.
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My outside HVAC unit makes absolutely no noise.
Oh, wait. I don’t have air-conditioning LOL
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I had a fun day got both my flu shot and shingles vaccine, so now I have one of those cute Walgreens’ red bandaids on both arms. Carol said she really wanted one of those, she’s seen the ads on TV, so I mentioned that to the pharmacist and she handed me a stack of them to send to Carol, so sweet.
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I asked her if they knew which strain of the flu might be going around this year and she laughed, “No,” she said, “it’s a guessing game.”
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We’ve had a weather alert for flash flooding. I hate that both Art and my brother are on the road at this time when the Emergency Broadcast says to stay off the roads. I have so much to pray about these days.
I notice that when weather is horrible that Amazon leaves packages at the front door and not by the closer obviously used door in the carport. I just don’t get that. The front porch takes more effort for them to get to it. Why do things the easier way?
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Seen on Twitter:
~ “This day completes my twentieth year: and yet I am good for nothing, and cannot even carry myself forward in the world: three long years I have yet to study in order to qualify myself for business …” — Future President John Quincy Adams, diary, July 11, 1787 ~
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Art just pulled into the driveway ♡
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Things are pretty much back to normal in my mouth today. There is some soreness from the Novocain shots, like bruising, but that is to be expected, and not too bad. But my body is achy today.
I may or may not have a mildish case of fibromyalgia. It’s never been diagnosed but I have some symptoms of it, and my sister-in-law who was diagnosed with it says she thinks I do.
Over the past few years, I haven’t had much trouble from it, or whatever it is. But whenever there is some kind of “trauma” to my body, aches flare up in my body, especially my neck, shoulders, and upper back. This happens even when I get a minor cold. Should get better soon, though.
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Carol’s very excited about the bandaids. 🙂 I told her I’d send them off in the mail to her.
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Watered a little while ago, it’s definitely sweatshirt weather now and the grass isn’t as brown as it was just a couple weeks ago. Yay.
Watching the Dodgers, they’re leading 3-2 so far
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This was in one of the email updates I get from World, from a few days ago. (I kept forgetting to share it here.)
“Curtain call
I can still remember the first time I heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio. I was 14 years old, and my dad and I were driving from Phoenix to Fresno, Calif. My father listened to a lot of talk radio, and most of the time I tuned it out. Something about Limbaugh’s funny, bombastic delivery caught my attention. Flash forward a year, and I was wearing a dittohead sweatshirt to school and debating my history teacher in class. (This was back in the 1990s, before school was too “safe” to debate with a teacher.)
Since then, I don’t know that I’ve gone a month of my life without hearing Rush’s voice. Often, not even a week. (When you’ve been listening to someone that long, it only feels natural to call them by their first name). Like millions of other listeners, I was stunned Monday when he opened his show by sharing in a surprisingly upbeat tone that he had a setback in his battle with lung cancer and called his prognosis a death sentence.
“I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said. “It is of immense value, strength, confidence. That’s why I’m able to remain fully committed to the idea that what is supposed to happen will happen when it’s meant to.”
Agree or disagree with Rush’s political views, I hope we’ll all take a minute to pray for a brother in Christ this week.
Megan Basham
WORLD Magazine Film and TV editor”
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And there’s a winner, even the the “polls” haven’t closed. Not political polls, but college football games. One person has 8 of 8 correct with 2 games still on, but as moderator of Pigskin Picks, I declare the winner as… Click and find out!
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nepotism!
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Dj it’s the little things in life…like little red bandages…so sweet ❤️
I have been hit or miss on seeing some posts…has Kevin been around lately? I haven’t seen anything from him?
Kim’s running her air conditioner and I am sitting in from of the fireplace keeping warm 😊
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Ugh…not in “from” but in “front”… 🔥
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Tomorrow (Oct 25) is an anniversary of sorts. It was 40 years ago my lovely bride and I first began getting to know each other. It was on a CROP Walk, so we spent all day walking 20 miles to raise money for charity and talking. Well, I did most of the talking. She’s a good listener.
This song has kind of become our song:
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BTW- CROP stands for Christian Rural Overseas Program, a ministry of Church World Services. https://www.crophungerwalk.org/Static/About-Us
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Watching Hallmark Christmas movies and getting the Pigskin Pick news . . . It’s quite an evening. And now the channel has been flipped over to the World Series. And the Dodgers are winning 7-6 right now.
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Wow, what a game, even though the Dodgers lost (tied now at 2-2 games for World Series).
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Difficult to believe that the Rays just won 8-7. Things change fast in these games! So there will be more World Series games since they are tied.
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I’ve covered some local CROP walks, Peter
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I love the Dodgers but also have a soft spot for the underdogs, so I’ve had to smile when TB has won their 2 games; I still think the Dodgers will pull it off, but always better to have a closely-matched series
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Our story 3 years ago on Kenley Jansen when he and his wife moved to one of our local beach cities
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Well, THIS is now a real series …
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Reporter who wrote that story just tweeted: “Dodgers, I just can’t do this anymore.”
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Another random Tweet:
~ If you’re trying to convert someone into a baseball fan and that last half-inning didn’t turn them, it’s a lost cause and you should move on. ~
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Did you miss me??? 🙂
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Jo – yes.
Master Amos started coughing so we are up and he has had his medicine. It’s coffee time for me.
I have no complaints.
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Good morning Kim and whoever else might be stirring around.
It is really raining in “Greensboro.
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I see on TV that Chick-fil=s is going to sell sauces in grocery stores.
I wonder if you can buy them on Sunday??
(Just joking here in case you didn’t guess.)
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Good Sunday morning! I will Facebook Live the service today.
Working on my memory verse this a.m.
1 John 2:15
“Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.”
Realizing we are to love people because they belong to God whether or not the individuals recognize that fact.
Does anyone else find this verse convicting? I still have a lot of whittling and purging of possessions to do.
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I have also been thinking about all those Halloween decorations. Many are giant blowup plastic type monsters of some sort. They are in yards with signs that sbow support for the Democrat party. That’s the party with the big green movement push if I understand correctly. Logically, that would be a movement away from plastics. Also, I think how many people could be fed who are hungry now with the money that those decorations cost. I see a real disconnect there. But I don’t want to neglect the log in my eye.
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DJ, that whole game was nuts. They won several records in it. First player to hit home runs in the first inning in back-to-back World Series games, record consecutive half-innings with at least one run (eight, I think–meaning that each team kept scoring and the lead kept changing), and I’m sure several more.
That last 60 seconds was just crazy, though. Multiple Dodgers missteps. The whole evening it wasn’t clear who would win since they both kept getting the lead, usually just a one-run lead, and being up by one in the bottom of the ninth isn’t a comfortable lead. I mean, worst-case scenario meant they tied the series; it was hardly the seventh game of the series, but still. That last minute looked like watching the Cubs throw away a win. My husband said it looked like Little League. The whole game was interesting, but that part was painful.
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I see Cheryl got 57. Speaking of 57, has anyone heard from Kevin lately?
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I just sent Kevin a note on Messenger to let him know people are asking about him on here. I saw he had not posted to his Facebook page since Oct.7.
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Time for church service!
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Morning! We are in a winter wonderland in this forest and the snow is ever so lightly falling. It’s icy out there and now they are predicting 7 inches of snow this day. Thankful!
Thanks for messaging Kevin for us Janice…. 😊
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I may have told you this before. And I don’t know the exact date. But it was a Sunday like this in 1955 that all my friends were at an event in Lexington, SC. We had a friend, Everett Talbert, who was the pastor of a church and a fellow student. For some unknown reason, I didn’t go.
For some unknown reason, I did something I never did before and never did again.
I sat in the balcony of FBC Columbia. All alone.
For some reason, there was a backup on the stairs descending from the balcony after church.
I found myself standing beside Elvera Collina. I knew who she was, but I never attended the department meetings. She and I knew who the other was, but we had never really met.
For some reason, I invited her to lunch. She accepted and we had 97 cent steaks at Walgreen.
I invited her to attend a meeting at Talbert’s church that afternoon.
She accepted and she went with me.’
I then invited her to attend a football game next Saturday.
She agreed.
She was going with someone else at the time. But he went home to Atlanta on most weekends. So I was Elvera’s weekend boyfriend. That went on for about six weeks until Christmas and end of session Breas.
Then she and he broke up and Elvera has been with me since then
We were married for years and I was retired before I started cogitating on the improbability of such a thing happening.
I concluded that it was meant to be.
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Cheryl, yes, the last couple minutes were outrageous, but I couldn’t help it, I was laughing through parts of that and actually smiled as the Rays ran around the field, arms outstretched, in sheer happiness. Dodger errors gave that to them, but it happens.
I guess I could laugh because I still trust that the Dodgers will take the series, that they’re the better team here, although who knows? But either way, the series is far from dull and that’s good for the game overall. No one’s going to just “run away” with this one.
But I won’t be laughing if the Dodgers fail to get a World Series win after botching it for a couple previous years.
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I’ve always had a soft spot for the underdogs. Of course, that, often enough, is the Dodgers.
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Interesting news item today:
_____________________
News
EXCLUSIVE: Trump, confirmed a Presbyterian, now identifies as ‘non-denominational Christian’
A rare exchange about religion-related matters with a president who, while allying closely with evangelical Christian leaders, has spoken little about his own faith.
_______________________
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~ WASHINGTON (RNS) — In an exclusive interview with Religion News Service, President Trump said in a written statement that he no longer identifies as a Presbyterian and now sees himself as a non-denominational Christian.
“Though I was confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child, I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian,” Trump, who has repeatedly identified as a Presbyterian in the past, said in a written response to RNS. ~
https://religionnews.com/2020/10/23/exclusive-trump-confirmed-a-presbyterian-now-identifies-as-non-denominational-christian/
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I was wondering, too, about Kevin.
I’m off to the outdoor service at our sister church again this morning.
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Chas I love the recounting of your love story with Elvera Collins….a story of our Lord’s beautiful design and gift of marriage.
And … honestly I had no idea Chick FIL A had sauces…the only one I get at the drive through is mayonnaise 😊
However the President identifies his “religious” affiliation I pray he would know our Saviour in depth and relationship….truly knowing Him.
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Janice at 9:59. Interesting thoughts. I have often wondered about that. I don’t think people actually believe their actions can make a difference.
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Good good church service, a little cool, but it’s so nice to get back to in-person worship w/weekly communion.
We had drizzle early this morning but the weather is supposed to warm up again this week. Back and forth we go.
But it was fun to actually pull on a turtleneck and jean jacket this morning, first time in what seemed like ages.
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I have heard nothing from Kevin. Maybe they are on vacation? Once a while back he had reached me on Messenger when he saw one of my Facebook friends was someone he knew. He was wondering the connection so that is how I knew he at least use to contact through Messenger.
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I rarely use Messenger any more, but thanks for trying to find me that way, Janice.
Life has been busy, and for some reason I’ve felt socially withdrawn, not keeping up with others very well. But I’m okay.
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I had my annual heart checkup at Cleveland Clinic a couple weeks ago. It was different driving down there by myself, about 3 hours each way. Usually Mrs B goes with me but Covid restrictions meant she would have spent the whole day outside the Clinic waiting for me doing…what? So I went by myself. It was a long day, from MRI at 7:30 through echocardiogram, EKG, blood draw, and finally meeting the doctor at 3:30.
I was apprehensive about starting with a new doctor. The one I’ve seen there the last six years left about a year ago. I really liked him and didn’t want to change. But I like the new doctor just as much, I think.
The news was good. She sat down and said everything from the testing looked “beautiful”. That was heartening.
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I am finding a different perspective on the Halloween decorations I see this year. They keep reminding me of Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones. The skeletons seem to me this year to be a reminder of human mortality and frailty. A fitting prelude to the season that begins with Advent and ends with Pentecost, just like some of the old folk carols begin by telling how death and sin entered the world before telling of the coming of the Christ into the world. For example, the Norfolk Carol:
“This is the truth sent from above,
the truth of God, the God of love;
therefore don’t turn me from the door
but hearken all, both rich and poor.
The first thing that I will relate,
that God at first did man create;
the next thing which to you I tell –
woman was made with him to dwell.
Then after that ’twas God’s own choice
to place them both in paradise,
there to remain from evil free
except they ate of such a tree.
“But they did eat, which was a sin,
and thus their ruin did begin –
ruined themselves, both you and me,
and all of our posterity.
“Thus we were heirs to endless woes
till God the Lord did interpose;
and so a promise soon did run:
that he’d redeem us by his Son…”
Or this one, from the 1600s:
“Remember, O thou Man, O thou Man, O thou Man, Remember, O thou Man, Thy time is spent. Remember, O thou Man, How thou camest to me then, And I did what I can. Therefore repent.
“Remember Adam’s fall, O thou Man, O thou Man, Remember Adam’s fall From Heaven to Hell. Remember Adam’s fall, How we were condemned all To Hell perpetual, There for to dwell.
“Remember God’s goodness, O thou Man, O thou Man, Remember God’s goodness And promise made. Remember God’s goodness, How his only Son he sent Our sins for to redress. Be not afraid…”
The beginning of the story is as important as the end.
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Thankful to see you here, Kevin. It is easy to feel a bit withdrawn these days from my personal experience. Sometimes I have to have a little internal battle with myself to get myself moving in communicating with people. For me it is part of being an introvert coupled with this habitual forced isolation. And then there is the tension of the election mixed in.
We’ve just been getting ad plugs from the former President Obama for a Democrat running for Senator here. Have any other former Presidents done that sort of thing?
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We don’t have Chik-Fil-As anywhere around here, so I made a point of stopping at one in Toledo on my way back from Cleveland. They had a very busy drive-through line. I almost left when I saw it. But they actually split it into two parallel lines, had people outside taking orders, and coordinating the merging of the two lines back together before the pick-up window. And they had two more employees taking the food out from the picking window and bringing them to the cars. It was very well-organized and took me less time to get through than most drive-through lines I go through. I don’t know how they make money with as many staff as they have. I hope they pay them well, because they’re always very polite, efficient, and accurate.
I don’t know if we have Chik-Fil-A sauce in stores around here, but Flyboy gets it from Amazon. It’s got a barbecue flavor.
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That, by the way, was 75.
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Oh, no it wasn’t. I shouldn’t have spent so much time writing the Chik-Fil-A post!
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Hello Kevin. We missed you and were a tad worried. Glad to hear everything look well on your tests.
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power about to go out here.
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Hello Kevin. Glad to see you back.
It would be good to “check in” occasionally.
I do that every day, just to show up. There is nothing happening around here that I want/need to share.
Some things I want to add to the “Politics” thread. but it shows up only once a week and my issue is old or passed by then.
Jo. I have never been warned that the power would go out. It just goes out without permission.
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They just cancelled our potential power outage–surprise!
I had the Sunday school class pray the winds would dissipate–and they did!
Thanks be to God.
I’ve been gone all day. Slept IN until 8 o’clock and barely got myself to church on time.
It’s been a long day at church–I just calculated, other than vacations/evacuation, it’s the longest time I’ve spent at a place other than family houses since March.
First church, then I stayed for Sunday school/hubrid–live or on Zoom–then went to the voter’s meeting–I didn’t get home until nearly 2.
And now am so behind . . . on my Sabbath rest. 🙂
I agree with Kevin, being on a social media fast has been lovely. The day is quieter and I’m not agitated about the politics. A total blessing.
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Michelle, I did see on Facebook a couple weeks ago that you had a big fire scare (before my “withdrawal” extended to Facebook). Did it come very close to your house? Have things settled down?
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Good to see you Kevin and thankful for your good report! 😊
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It is still on here, but we are told that it will go put soon. They call it a Public Safety Power outage.
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That’s a verse from the hymn “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”. I thought of it while singing it at church today in relation to my parents. Next Sunday is the 56th anniversary of my mother’s death. A neighbor told my sister that my mother professed Jesus before dying. We hope it was true.
Now my dad is dying, and I pray that the verse above is true for him before he goes.
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I’m sorry to hear your dad is dying, Peter. Prayers for him and for you and your family.
Nice to hear from Kevin again. I think RKessler is another one we haven’t seen in a while.
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Here is the sermon from this morning.
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Fire stopped 8 houses from us, Kevin, and because the smoke went north, we had no damage, thanks be to God.
Mentally and emotionally, it has been harder bouncing back. Lots of people are having trouble today.
Thanks for asking.
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Kevin – So glad to hear the good report on your heart!
Peter – Praying for your dad.
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Peter, sorry to hear about your dad.
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Last week we were surprised by a sound coming from our phone. I soon realized it was a video call from all three of my daughters. However, when I answered all my daughters were wondering who called whom. I mentioned it was probably our Annika who is four and likes to grab her mom’s phone and push buttons. Not sure if that is what happened, but all of us have a Messenger thread together and somehow the video call thing was pushed. We all laughed, since none of us even realized you could do that.
Today we had another call from oldest daughter and family. Our granddaughter was confirmed and we could not be there. They had a video service, but the confirmands give their testimonies to their families and then the family member lay hands on the confirmand and pray for them. There is no way each family could be shown on the video. We did see the family go up and take pictures after the ceremony. It was nice, then, to get a call later and be able to visit a little in this way. Maybe we will all appreciate being able to be together more when this is all over.
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The wind is scream. This is unsettling, even if we have power.
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Kathaleen, that sounds like a sweet surprise for all of you.
Michelle, definitely unsettling. 😦
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