Good morning, Chas. Yes, I will be glad when it is over so we can talk about something else. For an event that happens regularly every four years, its importance seems blown out of all proportion. If the incumbent is elected, there will only be four more years before his term limit, if the challenger is elected, he can only stay two times four years. Both are elderly men, well over their threescore years and ten. Four years is a blip.
I am the youngest here, and four years is just a small fraction of my lifespan, just a ninth of it, since I turn 36 just a few days after your election. It is an even smaller fraction for everyone else here. Four years ago, I was just starting my degree program. Now I am a full fledged registered nurse, who has worked over a year at my first job, and most of that time working under the shadow of a pandemic. That ninth of my life has passed by so quickly, and I have done so much in it, even travelling to the Far North. These four years have been filled with joy and sorrow – my last grand parent died, and I have gained two nephews and a niece. Yet, while living those four years, my health has degenerated a great deal, to the point where I need significant treatment to continue to be able to live and function properly. As the Psalmist says, “We spend our years as a tale that is told.” Or as James, the brother of our Lord said, ” What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Or as our Lord himself said, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Phos: At your age, four years is an important part of your life. You have many to go.
At my age, I have done absolutely nothing in the past four years. And hopefully not much in the next few that I have.
After you reach 70 or thereabouts, all change is bad.
(Change to you, that is, watching grandkids grow ip is one exception. There may be others. )
How? You ask.
As you age:
Your vision gets worse,
Your hearing gets worse.
Your stamina gets worse.
You begin to lose lifelong friends.
You can’t live where you want to because of listed problems.
Bur: In my case, you have time to cogitate and understand have blessed you have been over the years.
Chas, I may or may not have many to go. In this past year, I have seen many cancer patients, and not a few have been the same age or younger than I. Life is not a guarantee, even in your early years. My vision has also gotten worse, as it generally does for those who are nearsighted; this growth and my worsening allergies and asthma are sapping my stamina, to the point where I am struggling just st to work part time. My grand mother and my great uncle who passed away were dear friends, whom I had known all my life. I have reached the prime of my life in bad health, with no closer ties than my parents and siblings, and have never had a place of my own to live. I too have been blessed, but not in the ways I hoped for when I was growing up. I have spent long stretches of my adult life doing nothing as you say – when I first graduated from nursing school, I spent four years trying to.find work in my field before going to West Africa. Coming home from West Africa, my health was shattered, and I spent over two years recovering before returning to school. It has taken me a decade to finally have a steady job in my chosen field, and I never know if I will be able to continue in it. All I ever have, all any of us ever have, is today.
It is a day the Lord made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
I will be even more glad when this long-winded saga is finally settled down. But that may not happen on this fallen earth. But God sure makes it bearable as He walks through it all with us who believe. He even gives us little joy gifts throughout our days if we take time to look for them.
We have already voted (in person) and we are ready for it to be over as well. However, I have lately been blessed with such an inner peace about the outcome that it is not nearly as stressful as the last 3 yrs of Trump’s actual presidency. (Not because of the president, but because of his enemies and those who are ‘deranged’ over him.) For the country’s sake I do hope he is re-elected with the House and Senate support. But if Biden wins, the earth will not be knocked off its axis. We still have the promises of God that Roscuro articulated above. God will make a way for those who trust in Him. And that is sufficient.
This is not the “Politics” page. But I agree with Kim.
If I may:
I, as you know, am 90 years old. I have, in these past few months have had time to cogitate over many things One of those things is:
I have had the privilege of living in, and participating in the greatest nation on earth. During my lifetime”
During my early years, America was struggling through the remnants of a great depression. We still didn’t have it together.
But, when the time came, we saved Europe and Asia from two dominant political enemies.
We then assisted the world in a great recovery. And participated in it ourselves.
WE became the greatest nation on earth and, at this moment, still are.
The USA is unique among nations. There are other nations; I am thinking Canada and Australia, that offer the same freedom we have, but not the strength to protect itself from intrusion.
We do that.
Unfortunately, we became involved in issues that we shouldn’t have. I supported LBJ and others at the time. But I was wrong. The protesters were too, but that’s another issue.
Point I’m getting to is:
I see it slipping away. I fear fro my grand kids. And yours.
You may not have lived as long as most of us, Roscuro, but you’re certainly as wise as we are!
We survived nearly seven hours of fourth grade schoolwork yesterday. We did not finish, so she will return for another round tomorrow.
Smart girl, but disengaged. I sat 15 feet away in the same long room, working on the computer while she sat at the kitchen table. She had trouble staying “on task” as they say.
(She later told her mother she just listened to the “clicking of the keys” since there wasn’t anything else to do while not working.)
We finally made progress when I sat with her and talked through the questions related to the reading.
I believe I’ve mentioned how I can’t stand Common Core . . . it turned out she was discussing how and why the writer wrote what she did in specific paragraphs.
That’s all well and good, but the language was fairly elevated, even for a good reader.
And this professional writer, who has a degree in English Literature, couldn’t answer all the mechanical questions either. The nine-year-old actually understood that better than I did–though I recognized what she was talking about as she rattled off the formula with a flourish!
That was just language arts. She hasn’t really worked well in her math book . . .
Hybrid education, in my opinion, isn’t working. It brings out the worst in school and home school efforts.
I’m proud to report, however, I managed to remain calm through the entire exercise, but I was exhausted at the end of it all!
I, in fact, learned all about spiders. I didn’t know they injected venom into their prey which immobilizes the victim and turns their innards into a liquid– which the spider sucks up for nutrition.
(Yes, I’ve seen the Two Towers, I understood about wrapping the victim in silk, but I didn’t know spiders liquified their insides. It turns out they can spray the same ingredient over their bodies, sometimes, and liquify the outside as well).
The things you learn in fourth grade these days. I’m pretty sure I was reading about Ramona the Pest.
Good morning. I was going to ask, did you not read the Hobbit?
I am with Debra on outlook. Though I am not particularly looking forward to the end of the election because, if it does get sorted out, they will be starting on the next.
Little Miss has read 100 First Words this morning and informed me that Elmo is awake now.
Next week I jump back into full time work. It will be a long run to the middle of December.
Morning! Another beautiful sight to behold of Autumn up there!
I am ready for the election to be over and done with but alas it will not be “done with” sadly. Thank you Debra for your post. I am feeling a peace that passes understanding over this all. We may see great changes ahead if the Lord allows a certain person to become our “leader”. Or should I say “persons”. If that second person should become the leader of our nation there will be a downward spiral like none of us have ever seen…but the Lord our God knows and will navigate us through what lies ahead…in that will we trust…
The truth is that once this election is over, the electioneering will commence for the next one. I don’t mind hearing or reading what others are thinking. I scroll on by. It does make me sad for some and I dislike the hostility, foolishness and ignorance. That has caused me to pray more for others specifically. I refuse to engage with some at all.
I, especially, do not want to be like a child who lets the ‘parent’ decide all things. In our system we have the opportunity to have input in who and what happens. That is a blessing many nations do not have. Does that create effort and trouble? Yes, but acting like an adult brings effort and trouble in many ways.
Chas, my dad said the same thing about turning seventy and I shuddered. I already had health issues. Then again, he suffered all his life with asthma. Yesterday I went for an eye exam. I was blessed that all was well. I was concerned about it. Years ago that concern was not there. I have worn glasses since third grade and have terrible nearsightedness, yet the concern was not there for other diseases. They were not even on my mind. The older we get the more we realize things will not, necessarily get better. Choices do become limited. People, like my mom, who travelled the world now have a very small world. I do have a young friend with a similar small world and I know many who died when still toddlers, but that is not the norm. So many pieces of our heart have gone ahead to heaven and our longing turns more and more towards that for ourselves. Paul didn’t know if living or dying were better. He knew if God still needed him here he wanted to continue on the work. There are ways to do that no matter our situation. That is my prayer for the elders in my life, to finish the race strong; bringing glory to God.
Serious morning. And the “modern translation,” of course, is “It is what it is.”
I also prefer to keep my eyes on the bigger picture; nations come and go, this one also at some point. It’s probably especially hard however, for those in the “greatest generation” (or close enough to it) to see the rapid change since the mid 1900s. Most of us were born just in time for the turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s so while this period is more tumultuous and perhaps more serious, we know all about internal national upheavals. They’ve pretty much always been around, with a few “breaks” in between.
And there will always the Dodgers and that 2020 World Series.
At last.
What a fun night. We had fireworks going off all over town as soon as the game ended. My editor this morning (he was quite the young baseball player himself) told me he was born just 2 days after the Dodgers won the 1988 World Series so he’s been waiting his “whole life” for this. He’s very happy. 🙂
I also am reminded that it often is in times of darkness and even exile that God’s people begin to flourish and be renewed.
OK, I just had to laugh a little — the 35-year-old teenager spends all his days listening to loud music. Just now his mom said something to him, asking him to do something I think, and he replied that she was “always interrupting him when he was trying to listen to his music.”
He was clueless last night when the Dodgers won, I could hear him asking someone what’s going on with all the fireworks and then he says, “Oh, the Dodgers won the World Series?”
Abrupt change of subject.
Who here has cooked wiener schnitzel? I eat it any time I possibly can, but I have never made it. I found a recipe and it looks easy enough. Any advice?
I am going to make it with some boneless pork chops I found in the freezer. I have everything to make it except a dry white wine to deglaze the pan and make the sauce. I thought I would serve it with my grandmother’s German potatoes. I can’t make mine taste like hers but I refuse to give in and buy lard. What else would go with it?
DJ, the first time the Bulls won the NBA Championship, I hadn’t followed basketball at all, and to the best of my memory I don’t think I even knew they were playing. I was 17 stories up in a dorm room when I suddenly started hearing car horns honking, loudly enough to be heard that far off the ground, and probably some firecrackers. I looked down and saw people hugging other people in the crosswalks and on the sidewalks and high-fiving strangers.
Chicago doesn’t act that way. The car horns part, sure, but not connecting with strangers.
I asked someone what was going on and she told me.
To make it worse, captioning a photo of Michael Jordan in the yearbook the next year, I said that they had won the World Series. Or something. I don’t even remember what championship I credited them with winning, but it wasn’t a basketball thing and the guys all laughed at me.
He has a part-time job at a bakery — and he did have a new full-time job (his first full-time job he told me a year ago when he was first hired) at a brand new burger place just opening, but then that went south when the pandemic hit. He buys and sells vinyl albums on the side. Nice guy, seems definitely more like an early-20-something but doing the math, he’s now in his 30s. (His brother who recently died was 32 or 33 and this guy was the older — probably not by much — of the two.)
I wish he had the concentration and motivation to go to a trade school, learn a trade; I don’t think he’d have the concentration needed though, he’s a flighty type and has a scary past of drug selling which apparently was very lucrative financially. He doesn’t listen well, talks mostly about himself. My slapdash house work crew used to chat with him quite a bit when they were around so much.
He wants to be in the music business, behind the scenes on the technical sound & recording end, he has done some of that in the past so has some experience and knowledge in that field. But that’s clearly one of those businesses that is hard to break into if you’re looking for a regular income.
Kim, the only “wiener schnitzel” I’ve ever heard of was the fast-food chain around here.
Cheryl, that’s funny.
I grew up listening to and watching the Dodgers (w/Vin Scully); my dad and I would go to a game now and again (Angels also were an LA team when they first came here and played at Dodger Stadium). We’d get the $1.50 seats in the outfield.
In between, my dad and I — and later my girlfriends in the neighborhood — would play catch in the backyard. I remember my dad going over the morning baseball standings with me from the newspaper when I was probably between 9 and 11 years old. He’d explain how it all worked, how teams advances. I once asked him if it’s OK for girls to follow baseball when they grew up, he said sure.
I haven’t always closely followed the teams as an adult, which somewhat surprises me that I didn’t turn into even more of a fan than I did in my grown-up years. But I always keep an eye somewhat on the Dodgers and when they get close to winning the whole enchilada, as we used to say, I’m right there. 🙂
The Lakers, I don’t follow. Now when they won the championship here recently I also didn’t know what all the fireworks were about right away. So I shouldn’t be critical.
BTW, the LA Rams are also doing well — and I will probably keep an eye out on them, too, since their brand new, just-opened home stadium is in the town where I grew up.
What kind of person lights off illegal fireworks during a wild night of 40 mile-an-hour winds in a high fire zone with half the county shut down to prevent a fire?
What kind of person builds an illegal fire in the middle of a town park during that same night?
With everyone in town gunning they be locked up, they managed to slip away.
Fortunately, the firefighters–who actually work for a living–were able to put out the fires before they spread.
Kim, I have a recipe for a veggie slaw that would make a good side with the pork and potatoes. It uses blanched brocolli, finely chopped, red cabbage, finely chopped, sliced carrots, and sliced turnip root. Add some garlic, sweet onion, mayo, and olive oil vinaigrette salad dressing with sprinkles of salt, freshly ground black pepper, and celery seed. It seems I recall that red cabbage is used some in German dishes. Or you could do something with sauerkraut, maybe, depending on tolerance for that strong flavor.
Thankful the Dodgers won! Glad we had more time to relax here in Atlanta and not have to spend more days and nights in the restless unknown of wondering who will win. That was our consolation prize. And with all else going on, I welcomed that.
Janice, we were sort of there ourselves. The Cubs dropped out so early, and after that it was “OK, who do we root for now?” My husband had been a Dodgers fan in the past, and one of my brothers is, and DJ is, and they’re playing so well, that they seemed a good team to back. But it was more relaxing to watch when we were just “borrowing” them and they weren’t really “our” team. I tended to watch when the Dodgers were batting, and go do something else when they weren’t. And often there would be one or even two outs by the time I got in to see them bat. Sometimes I watched a whole inning or two, but most of the time just bits and pieces.
And I must have been somewhat overconfident this time, I also tended to get up and do other things when the Rays were at bat. But actually, it was a tight-fought series, the Rays gave them a run for it. And I always “feel” for the losing teams, I felt bad when the cameras scanned their dugout last night after it was over. 😦 Been there, done that, too.
It was a fun juxtaposition to watch the games and the Hallmark channel back and forth to see who will win in each one. This has been a good year to finally get cable and find out Art likes the Hallmark channel. He is the one who never helped me put up the Christmas tree. Who would have ever thought?
QoD: I’m not sure I’ll be glad when this election is over. If it largely ends talk about politics everywhere one goes, then I will be. It’s possible, though, depending on the election results, that vitriolic political talk could ramp up even more for an unknown period of time.
I’ve been trying to avoid reading about politics lately, but it still shows up when and where one least expects it. We had our septic pumped yesterday, and in talking with the pumper after he was finished, he mentioned that there was a build-up of cheap toilet paper in there. I asked if he’s been seeing much of that lately in his job, since it was so hard for a while for consumers to find much of any toilet paper in stores, except for a little of the cheap off-brands, due to hoarding in the early months of the pandemic. He nodded and said, yes, he’d been seeing that in other septic systems, too. Then he took the opportunity to shrug and say something like, “Well, that’s what we have because of the present occupant of the White House…”
OK, yeah, whatever. Thanks for telling me our septic status before pumping was Trump’s fault…
I had a very short, but vivid dream early this morning about my late friend Karen. She and I were sitting at a small table somewhere, having a Bible study. She wore a bright orange top — a color she never wore, that I know of.
I don’t remember what book we were studying, but I recall having one thought:
“Here she is. I need to savor this moment, because when I wake up from this dream, she won’t be here anymore.”
And the dream ended.
Make of that what you will, but it all felt so real to me.
Chas, we have a nation of those people, living off of their parents. It may well be a big part of our political problem, too many people want a free lunch.
You may recall, we heard for a long time that ours were the only children willing to work for people: cleaning out gutters, rock picking, mowing, etc. Now, they have moved on and the problem remains.
As to the window daughter broke two weeks ago. It will be at least another two weeks before the window people can send somebody to measure it for replacement. They said we were fortunate it is not a siding problem as the wait is a year and a half as they just can’t fine anybody willing to work.
Now I will give you my opinion of colleges, since nobody asked for it. We do not need free college. The colleges we have are not teaching people to be working or independent Most are cesspools of drugs and alcohol and sex. People don’t go there for an education.
Not sure about the cesspool part of that, but the colleges often seem to simply indoctrinate students and narrow their view of the world.
Free college would just make that kind of experience more likely for even more young people.
Many shake it off after a few years of working and independence, having to pay bills, etc.; but it sounds like the indoctrination experience is become a lot more extreme here in the past 10-20 years or so.
Now I say that as one who had essentially free community college (in the early 1970s in California) which worked out for me wonderfully. College otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. By the time I was ready to transfer to State, I’d come a long way toward grasping some kind of future — and State back then also was affordable even for working-class families. I worked part-time at Sears all the way through college but did continue to live at home; my father had died in 1970 and it was just my mom and me, and whatever “dogs” were around of course. Later, my aunt, my mom’s sister, moved in with her which is another story that didn’t work out great, but at least she wasn’t living alone so that was good, I think. Though like me, my mom was quite independent.
Six Arrows, our septic system guy told us a story of a grandpa having his system pumped. His young grandson, who was chewing on gum, came by and asked the guy pumping where he brings that yucky stuff. Before the pumper could say anything, the grandpa spoke up, telling the boy that it is brought to the gum factories for use in making gum. Apparently, the boy made a horrible grimace and spit out his gum immediately.
Colleges: worked well for husband. And we are pleased with the results for the first four though it was touch and go at times. Third son had a dorm roomie who would bring his girl in to spend the night on a regular basis. Very difficult for him. But the more recent college experiences have not been positive. Yes, son got his associates degree and is making big money, but his morals went down fast. And daughter, as you know, came home pregnant. And other daughter has had significant struggles with college. Mostly along the lines of getting other students to take it seriously when they had projects to do together.
I believe that Wesley has only been at schools within situations where students have been very serious about academics. He has been blessed by God to not have experienced all the immaturity that goes on in some places. I do not think he would like teaching in such situations. He does laugh about one student who left his class and came back with a Chic-Fil-A sandwich for his breakfast. He said the guy should have brought sandwiches for everyone.
He also told me about one guy who got kicked out of Covenant because he was trying to get away without paying for a dorm by living outside while hooking up with campus electricity (at least it was something like that).
College is what you make of it. One could get drawn into the world of drinking, drugs, and sex in any situation. My mother said her fellow public school teachers, and this was the late 60s to late 70s, used to talk about going to the pubs Friday night and getting wasted over the weekend. My mother kept busy with school prep and church ministry on weekends. I have been to college and university, never even felt pressured to join in the party lifestyle that is rumoured to exist (never saw it firsthand). If someone’s character is immature, they will probably make a hash of college; if the rules their parents had were the only things keeping them from doing so, then they will go haywire the moment they are out on their own. For those who want to learn, college and university is a wonderful opportunity to do so.
Absolutely. However, in my experience (remembering my own short stint in college and I was not a partier) the vast majority are not there to learn. They are there to party on their parent’s dime. We do not need to foot the bill for that. We have been through the gamut of schools: private, state, Christian. All had the same challenges. The Christian school did better at keeping parents informed then the other two. After all, they are adults, living the lives of children. Yes, some were there with purpose or quickly discovered purpose. Many if not most were only there to kill time.
I have no problem with somebody working their way through school. Apt to care about it a whole lot more. But I do not like the idea of adding another four to six years of free to play time to our already extended adolescents.
Please pray for our area to be safe.
Weather report from Glen Burns, weatherman:
Here is the the latest. Wind gust predictions have increased dramatically. Some could Be near hurricane force. Rainfall amounts 2-6 inches. Timing from 2 am to 8 am. Flooding likely. Brief spin up tornadoes. Trees and power outages likely. I will see you at 11 pm and Brian Monahan, Eboni Deon and I will be with you through the night.
Praying, Janice.
I took a four mile walk today on the streets around here. I think I will stick to the woods for a while or just this block. There were so many Biden signs it left me feeling a trifle sick.
My youngest sister has organized a family zoom call for four of us tomorrow. I am the middle child. Please pray, I am the only Christian and am not close to the others. I tend to get put down and it is not fun. It has been better lately, but I am still rather anxious. Rather feeling like it could be a den of lions. One sister I have not spoken to for years. The other sister and my brother I saw in early June. Brother seems to have some sort of Parkinsons. It has mellowed him.
Wandering Views 
Good morning everyone.
QD Will you be glad when this election is over?
For some reason, it seems different, and not good.
I’m afraid for you.
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Good morning, Chas. Yes, I will be glad when it is over so we can talk about something else. For an event that happens regularly every four years, its importance seems blown out of all proportion. If the incumbent is elected, there will only be four more years before his term limit, if the challenger is elected, he can only stay two times four years. Both are elderly men, well over their threescore years and ten. Four years is a blip.
I am the youngest here, and four years is just a small fraction of my lifespan, just a ninth of it, since I turn 36 just a few days after your election. It is an even smaller fraction for everyone else here. Four years ago, I was just starting my degree program. Now I am a full fledged registered nurse, who has worked over a year at my first job, and most of that time working under the shadow of a pandemic. That ninth of my life has passed by so quickly, and I have done so much in it, even travelling to the Far North. These four years have been filled with joy and sorrow – my last grand parent died, and I have gained two nephews and a niece. Yet, while living those four years, my health has degenerated a great deal, to the point where I need significant treatment to continue to be able to live and function properly. As the Psalmist says, “We spend our years as a tale that is told.” Or as James, the brother of our Lord said, ” What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Or as our Lord himself said, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
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Phos: At your age, four years is an important part of your life. You have many to go.
At my age, I have done absolutely nothing in the past four years. And hopefully not much in the next few that I have.
After you reach 70 or thereabouts, all change is bad.
(Change to you, that is, watching grandkids grow ip is one exception. There may be others. )
How? You ask.
As you age:
Your vision gets worse,
Your hearing gets worse.
Your stamina gets worse.
You begin to lose lifelong friends.
You can’t live where you want to because of listed problems.
Bur: In my case, you have time to cogitate and understand have blessed you have been over the years.
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Chas, I may or may not have many to go. In this past year, I have seen many cancer patients, and not a few have been the same age or younger than I. Life is not a guarantee, even in your early years. My vision has also gotten worse, as it generally does for those who are nearsighted; this growth and my worsening allergies and asthma are sapping my stamina, to the point where I am struggling just st to work part time. My grand mother and my great uncle who passed away were dear friends, whom I had known all my life. I have reached the prime of my life in bad health, with no closer ties than my parents and siblings, and have never had a place of my own to live. I too have been blessed, but not in the ways I hoped for when I was growing up. I have spent long stretches of my adult life doing nothing as you say – when I first graduated from nursing school, I spent four years trying to.find work in my field before going to West Africa. Coming home from West Africa, my health was shattered, and I spent over two years recovering before returning to school. It has taken me a decade to finally have a steady job in my chosen field, and I never know if I will be able to continue in it. All I ever have, all any of us ever have, is today.
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Yes. I am ready for it to be over. I am fearful for our country.
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I feel we are in Ecclesiastes this morning!
It is a day the Lord made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
I will be even more glad when this long-winded saga is finally settled down. But that may not happen on this fallen earth. But God sure makes it bearable as He walks through it all with us who believe. He even gives us little joy gifts throughout our days if we take time to look for them.
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We have already voted (in person) and we are ready for it to be over as well. However, I have lately been blessed with such an inner peace about the outcome that it is not nearly as stressful as the last 3 yrs of Trump’s actual presidency. (Not because of the president, but because of his enemies and those who are ‘deranged’ over him.) For the country’s sake I do hope he is re-elected with the House and Senate support. But if Biden wins, the earth will not be knocked off its axis. We still have the promises of God that Roscuro articulated above. God will make a way for those who trust in Him. And that is sufficient.
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This is not the “Politics” page. But I agree with Kim.
If I may:
I, as you know, am 90 years old. I have, in these past few months have had time to cogitate over many things One of those things is:
I have had the privilege of living in, and participating in the greatest nation on earth. During my lifetime”
During my early years, America was struggling through the remnants of a great depression. We still didn’t have it together.
But, when the time came, we saved Europe and Asia from two dominant political enemies.
We then assisted the world in a great recovery. And participated in it ourselves.
WE became the greatest nation on earth and, at this moment, still are.
The USA is unique among nations. There are other nations; I am thinking Canada and Australia, that offer the same freedom we have, but not the strength to protect itself from intrusion.
We do that.
Unfortunately, we became involved in issues that we shouldn’t have. I supported LBJ and others at the time. But I was wrong. The protesters were too, but that’s another issue.
Point I’m getting to is:
I see it slipping away. I fear fro my grand kids. And yours.
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You may not have lived as long as most of us, Roscuro, but you’re certainly as wise as we are!
We survived nearly seven hours of fourth grade schoolwork yesterday. We did not finish, so she will return for another round tomorrow.
Smart girl, but disengaged. I sat 15 feet away in the same long room, working on the computer while she sat at the kitchen table. She had trouble staying “on task” as they say.
(She later told her mother she just listened to the “clicking of the keys” since there wasn’t anything else to do while not working.)
We finally made progress when I sat with her and talked through the questions related to the reading.
I believe I’ve mentioned how I can’t stand Common Core . . . it turned out she was discussing how and why the writer wrote what she did in specific paragraphs.
That’s all well and good, but the language was fairly elevated, even for a good reader.
And this professional writer, who has a degree in English Literature, couldn’t answer all the mechanical questions either. The nine-year-old actually understood that better than I did–though I recognized what she was talking about as she rattled off the formula with a flourish!
That was just language arts. She hasn’t really worked well in her math book . . .
Hybrid education, in my opinion, isn’t working. It brings out the worst in school and home school efforts.
I’m proud to report, however, I managed to remain calm through the entire exercise, but I was exhausted at the end of it all!
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I, in fact, learned all about spiders. I didn’t know they injected venom into their prey which immobilizes the victim and turns their innards into a liquid– which the spider sucks up for nutrition.
(Yes, I’ve seen the Two Towers, I understood about wrapping the victim in silk, but I didn’t know spiders liquified their insides. It turns out they can spray the same ingredient over their bodies, sometimes, and liquify the outside as well).
The things you learn in fourth grade these days. I’m pretty sure I was reading about Ramona the Pest.
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Good morning. I was going to ask, did you not read the Hobbit?
I am with Debra on outlook. Though I am not particularly looking forward to the end of the election because, if it does get sorted out, they will be starting on the next.
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Yuck,
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Little Miss has read 100 First Words this morning and informed me that Elmo is awake now.
Next week I jump back into full time work. It will be a long run to the middle of December.
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Morning! Another beautiful sight to behold of Autumn up there!
I am ready for the election to be over and done with but alas it will not be “done with” sadly. Thank you Debra for your post. I am feeling a peace that passes understanding over this all. We may see great changes ahead if the Lord allows a certain person to become our “leader”. Or should I say “persons”. If that second person should become the leader of our nation there will be a downward spiral like none of us have ever seen…but the Lord our God knows and will navigate us through what lies ahead…in that will we trust…
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The truth is that once this election is over, the electioneering will commence for the next one. I don’t mind hearing or reading what others are thinking. I scroll on by. It does make me sad for some and I dislike the hostility, foolishness and ignorance. That has caused me to pray more for others specifically. I refuse to engage with some at all.
I, especially, do not want to be like a child who lets the ‘parent’ decide all things. In our system we have the opportunity to have input in who and what happens. That is a blessing many nations do not have. Does that create effort and trouble? Yes, but acting like an adult brings effort and trouble in many ways.
Chas, my dad said the same thing about turning seventy and I shuddered. I already had health issues. Then again, he suffered all his life with asthma. Yesterday I went for an eye exam. I was blessed that all was well. I was concerned about it. Years ago that concern was not there. I have worn glasses since third grade and have terrible nearsightedness, yet the concern was not there for other diseases. They were not even on my mind. The older we get the more we realize things will not, necessarily get better. Choices do become limited. People, like my mom, who travelled the world now have a very small world. I do have a young friend with a similar small world and I know many who died when still toddlers, but that is not the norm. So many pieces of our heart have gone ahead to heaven and our longing turns more and more towards that for ourselves. Paul didn’t know if living or dying were better. He knew if God still needed him here he wanted to continue on the work. There are ways to do that no matter our situation. That is my prayer for the elders in my life, to finish the race strong; bringing glory to God.
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Serious morning. And the “modern translation,” of course, is “It is what it is.”
I also prefer to keep my eyes on the bigger picture; nations come and go, this one also at some point. It’s probably especially hard however, for those in the “greatest generation” (or close enough to it) to see the rapid change since the mid 1900s. Most of us were born just in time for the turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s so while this period is more tumultuous and perhaps more serious, we know all about internal national upheavals. They’ve pretty much always been around, with a few “breaks” in between.
And there will always the Dodgers and that 2020 World Series.
At last.
What a fun night. We had fireworks going off all over town as soon as the game ended. My editor this morning (he was quite the young baseball player himself) told me he was born just 2 days after the Dodgers won the 1988 World Series so he’s been waiting his “whole life” for this. He’s very happy. 🙂
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I also am reminded that it often is in times of darkness and even exile that God’s people begin to flourish and be renewed.
OK, I just had to laugh a little — the 35-year-old teenager spends all his days listening to loud music. Just now his mom said something to him, asking him to do something I think, and he replied that she was “always interrupting him when he was trying to listen to his music.”
He was clueless last night when the Dodgers won, I could hear him asking someone what’s going on with all the fireworks and then he says, “Oh, the Dodgers won the World Series?”
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*the 35-year-old teenager next door, that would be
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You folks set off fireworks in the summer? With all the fire danger? Are you looney? Never mind…..
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What?
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What does a 35 year old teenager do for a living?
Who pays for his music?
What will he do when he reaches 40?
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Abrupt change of subject.
Who here has cooked wiener schnitzel? I eat it any time I possibly can, but I have never made it. I found a recipe and it looks easy enough. Any advice?
I am going to make it with some boneless pork chops I found in the freezer. I have everything to make it except a dry white wine to deglaze the pan and make the sauce. I thought I would serve it with my grandmother’s German potatoes. I can’t make mine taste like hers but I refuse to give in and buy lard. What else would go with it?
https://www.food.com/recipe/wiener-schnitzel-with-sauce-206217
Oh and it looks like we will be blessed with a little more rain…
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/26/927996533/now-a-hurricane-zeta-is-on-track-to-hit-louisiana-on-wednesday
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DJ, the first time the Bulls won the NBA Championship, I hadn’t followed basketball at all, and to the best of my memory I don’t think I even knew they were playing. I was 17 stories up in a dorm room when I suddenly started hearing car horns honking, loudly enough to be heard that far off the ground, and probably some firecrackers. I looked down and saw people hugging other people in the crosswalks and on the sidewalks and high-fiving strangers.
Chicago doesn’t act that way. The car horns part, sure, but not connecting with strangers.
I asked someone what was going on and she told me.
To make it worse, captioning a photo of Michael Jordan in the yearbook the next year, I said that they had won the World Series. Or something. I don’t even remember what championship I credited them with winning, but it wasn’t a basketball thing and the guys all laughed at me.
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He has a part-time job at a bakery — and he did have a new full-time job (his first full-time job he told me a year ago when he was first hired) at a brand new burger place just opening, but then that went south when the pandemic hit. He buys and sells vinyl albums on the side. Nice guy, seems definitely more like an early-20-something but doing the math, he’s now in his 30s. (His brother who recently died was 32 or 33 and this guy was the older — probably not by much — of the two.)
I wish he had the concentration and motivation to go to a trade school, learn a trade; I don’t think he’d have the concentration needed though, he’s a flighty type and has a scary past of drug selling which apparently was very lucrative financially. He doesn’t listen well, talks mostly about himself. My slapdash house work crew used to chat with him quite a bit when they were around so much.
He wants to be in the music business, behind the scenes on the technical sound & recording end, he has done some of that in the past so has some experience and knowledge in that field. But that’s clearly one of those businesses that is hard to break into if you’re looking for a regular income.
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1:52 was in answer to Chas’ question, just kind of delayed
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Kim, the only “wiener schnitzel” I’ve ever heard of was the fast-food chain around here.
Cheryl, that’s funny.
I grew up listening to and watching the Dodgers (w/Vin Scully); my dad and I would go to a game now and again (Angels also were an LA team when they first came here and played at Dodger Stadium). We’d get the $1.50 seats in the outfield.
In between, my dad and I — and later my girlfriends in the neighborhood — would play catch in the backyard. I remember my dad going over the morning baseball standings with me from the newspaper when I was probably between 9 and 11 years old. He’d explain how it all worked, how teams advances. I once asked him if it’s OK for girls to follow baseball when they grew up, he said sure.
I haven’t always closely followed the teams as an adult, which somewhat surprises me that I didn’t turn into even more of a fan than I did in my grown-up years. But I always keep an eye somewhat on the Dodgers and when they get close to winning the whole enchilada, as we used to say, I’m right there. 🙂
The Lakers, I don’t follow. Now when they won the championship here recently I also didn’t know what all the fireworks were about right away. So I shouldn’t be critical.
BTW, the LA Rams are also doing well — and I will probably keep an eye out on them, too, since their brand new, just-opened home stadium is in the town where I grew up.
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What kind of person lights off illegal fireworks during a wild night of 40 mile-an-hour winds in a high fire zone with half the county shut down to prevent a fire?
What kind of person builds an illegal fire in the middle of a town park during that same night?
With everyone in town gunning they be locked up, they managed to slip away.
Fortunately, the firefighters–who actually work for a living–were able to put out the fires before they spread.
Maddening.
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Kim, I have a recipe for a veggie slaw that would make a good side with the pork and potatoes. It uses blanched brocolli, finely chopped, red cabbage, finely chopped, sliced carrots, and sliced turnip root. Add some garlic, sweet onion, mayo, and olive oil vinaigrette salad dressing with sprinkles of salt, freshly ground black pepper, and celery seed. It seems I recall that red cabbage is used some in German dishes. Or you could do something with sauerkraut, maybe, depending on tolerance for that strong flavor.
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Thankful the Dodgers won! Glad we had more time to relax here in Atlanta and not have to spend more days and nights in the restless unknown of wondering who will win. That was our consolation prize. And with all else going on, I welcomed that.
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Been there, done that, Janice. 🙂
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Janice, we were sort of there ourselves. The Cubs dropped out so early, and after that it was “OK, who do we root for now?” My husband had been a Dodgers fan in the past, and one of my brothers is, and DJ is, and they’re playing so well, that they seemed a good team to back. But it was more relaxing to watch when we were just “borrowing” them and they weren’t really “our” team. I tended to watch when the Dodgers were batting, and go do something else when they weren’t. And often there would be one or even two outs by the time I got in to see them bat. Sometimes I watched a whole inning or two, but most of the time just bits and pieces.
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And I must have been somewhat overconfident this time, I also tended to get up and do other things when the Rays were at bat. But actually, it was a tight-fought series, the Rays gave them a run for it. And I always “feel” for the losing teams, I felt bad when the cameras scanned their dugout last night after it was over. 😦 Been there, done that, too.
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A man who reaches 35 without an identifiable/useful skill is going to have a hard time with the rest of his life.
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It was a fun juxtaposition to watch the games and the Hallmark channel back and forth to see who will win in each one. This has been a good year to finally get cable and find out Art likes the Hallmark channel. He is the one who never helped me put up the Christmas tree. Who would have ever thought?
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QoD: I’m not sure I’ll be glad when this election is over. If it largely ends talk about politics everywhere one goes, then I will be. It’s possible, though, depending on the election results, that vitriolic political talk could ramp up even more for an unknown period of time.
I’ve been trying to avoid reading about politics lately, but it still shows up when and where one least expects it. We had our septic pumped yesterday, and in talking with the pumper after he was finished, he mentioned that there was a build-up of cheap toilet paper in there. I asked if he’s been seeing much of that lately in his job, since it was so hard for a while for consumers to find much of any toilet paper in stores, except for a little of the cheap off-brands, due to hoarding in the early months of the pandemic. He nodded and said, yes, he’d been seeing that in other septic systems, too. Then he took the opportunity to shrug and say something like, “Well, that’s what we have because of the present occupant of the White House…”
OK, yeah, whatever. Thanks for telling me our septic status before pumping was Trump’s fault…
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I had a very short, but vivid dream early this morning about my late friend Karen. She and I were sitting at a small table somewhere, having a Bible study. She wore a bright orange top — a color she never wore, that I know of.
I don’t remember what book we were studying, but I recall having one thought:
“Here she is. I need to savor this moment, because when I wake up from this dream, she won’t be here anymore.”
And the dream ended.
Make of that what you will, but it all felt so real to me.
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My friend, the chef at my camp, made schnitzel for her supper once. I got to try a bit of it at lunch the next day – it was delicious, even re-heated.
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This is a quick read that reminded me of a few beloved peeps here on the blog for their ability to provide accountability.
https://www.philcooke.com/ignorant-confident/
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Chas, we have a nation of those people, living off of their parents. It may well be a big part of our political problem, too many people want a free lunch.
You may recall, we heard for a long time that ours were the only children willing to work for people: cleaning out gutters, rock picking, mowing, etc. Now, they have moved on and the problem remains.
As to the window daughter broke two weeks ago. It will be at least another two weeks before the window people can send somebody to measure it for replacement. They said we were fortunate it is not a siding problem as the wait is a year and a half as they just can’t fine anybody willing to work.
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Now I will give you my opinion of colleges, since nobody asked for it. We do not need free college. The colleges we have are not teaching people to be working or independent Most are cesspools of drugs and alcohol and sex. People don’t go there for an education.
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Not sure about the cesspool part of that, but the colleges often seem to simply indoctrinate students and narrow their view of the world.
Free college would just make that kind of experience more likely for even more young people.
Many shake it off after a few years of working and independence, having to pay bills, etc.; but it sounds like the indoctrination experience is become a lot more extreme here in the past 10-20 years or so.
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Now I say that as one who had essentially free community college (in the early 1970s in California) which worked out for me wonderfully. College otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. By the time I was ready to transfer to State, I’d come a long way toward grasping some kind of future — and State back then also was affordable even for working-class families. I worked part-time at Sears all the way through college but did continue to live at home; my father had died in 1970 and it was just my mom and me, and whatever “dogs” were around of course. Later, my aunt, my mom’s sister, moved in with her which is another story that didn’t work out great, but at least she wasn’t living alone so that was good, I think. Though like me, my mom was quite independent.
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Six Arrows, our septic system guy told us a story of a grandpa having his system pumped. His young grandson, who was chewing on gum, came by and asked the guy pumping where he brings that yucky stuff. Before the pumper could say anything, the grandpa spoke up, telling the boy that it is brought to the gum factories for use in making gum. Apparently, the boy made a horrible grimace and spit out his gum immediately.
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LOL, Kathaleena! 😀 Grandpas can sure have a knack for saying things like that. 😉
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Colleges: worked well for husband. And we are pleased with the results for the first four though it was touch and go at times. Third son had a dorm roomie who would bring his girl in to spend the night on a regular basis. Very difficult for him. But the more recent college experiences have not been positive. Yes, son got his associates degree and is making big money, but his morals went down fast. And daughter, as you know, came home pregnant. And other daughter has had significant struggles with college. Mostly along the lines of getting other students to take it seriously when they had projects to do together.
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I believe that Wesley has only been at schools within situations where students have been very serious about academics. He has been blessed by God to not have experienced all the immaturity that goes on in some places. I do not think he would like teaching in such situations. He does laugh about one student who left his class and came back with a Chic-Fil-A sandwich for his breakfast. He said the guy should have brought sandwiches for everyone.
He also told me about one guy who got kicked out of Covenant because he was trying to get away without paying for a dorm by living outside while hooking up with campus electricity (at least it was something like that).
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College is what you make of it. One could get drawn into the world of drinking, drugs, and sex in any situation. My mother said her fellow public school teachers, and this was the late 60s to late 70s, used to talk about going to the pubs Friday night and getting wasted over the weekend. My mother kept busy with school prep and church ministry on weekends. I have been to college and university, never even felt pressured to join in the party lifestyle that is rumoured to exist (never saw it firsthand). If someone’s character is immature, they will probably make a hash of college; if the rules their parents had were the only things keeping them from doing so, then they will go haywire the moment they are out on their own. For those who want to learn, college and university is a wonderful opportunity to do so.
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Absolutely. However, in my experience (remembering my own short stint in college and I was not a partier) the vast majority are not there to learn. They are there to party on their parent’s dime. We do not need to foot the bill for that. We have been through the gamut of schools: private, state, Christian. All had the same challenges. The Christian school did better at keeping parents informed then the other two. After all, they are adults, living the lives of children. Yes, some were there with purpose or quickly discovered purpose. Many if not most were only there to kill time.
I have no problem with somebody working their way through school. Apt to care about it a whole lot more. But I do not like the idea of adding another four to six years of free to play time to our already extended adolescents.
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Please pray for our area to be safe.
Weather report from Glen Burns, weatherman:
Here is the the latest. Wind gust predictions have increased dramatically. Some could Be near hurricane force. Rainfall amounts 2-6 inches. Timing from 2 am to 8 am. Flooding likely. Brief spin up tornadoes. Trees and power outages likely. I will see you at 11 pm and Brian Monahan, Eboni Deon and I will be with you through the night.
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Keeping you all close in prayer Janice ❤️
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Praying, Janice.
I took a four mile walk today on the streets around here. I think I will stick to the woods for a while or just this block. There were so many Biden signs it left me feeling a trifle sick.
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My youngest sister has organized a family zoom call for four of us tomorrow. I am the middle child. Please pray, I am the only Christian and am not close to the others. I tend to get put down and it is not fun. It has been better lately, but I am still rather anxious. Rather feeling like it could be a den of lions. One sister I have not spoken to for years. The other sister and my brother I saw in early June. Brother seems to have some sort of Parkinsons. It has mellowed him.
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