Good morning! Sorry I have not been participating much lately. I am super wrapped up in school, work and this dang COVID. We have a big surge in my area and almost half of the patients that present to the ED are infectious with this virus. I do think of you each day and remember all of you in my prayers.
Hi rk…we have been thinking about you too! Praying you stay safe down there. We are under a new level of restrictions starting Wed…after the election. Seems our area is being inundated with new cases. Thankful you stopped in to check in with us!
Good morning RK, NancyJ, et. al.
I’m back! ‘
power went off at 10:00 AM Thursday and came back of at 8″30 last night. Inconvenient, but no real damage. However, as it cleared up,it began to get cold.
It is 46 degrees now. But heat is on.
So? Everything is back to whatever is normal around here.
But I have lots of things to do today. Trivial, but they need to be done:
Change clocks, change air filters, etc. Plus some storm clean up. Tha t takes more time and effort. Maybe more than I have by myself.
rk, I pray for all of you working in health care these days.
We have a warm up coming. So glad. Our winters get so long when it starts so early. There are so many things I love about winter, but the length is not one of them. OTOH, the deer hunters are not looking forward to the warmth and loss of snow. You can’t make everyone happy. 😉
Glad all is well, Chas. I remind myself that everything I CAN do is good exercise for me To do. I cannot imagine by the time I am your age. Good for you for doing it!
I did buy some Halloween candy. We have a couple of new neighborhood children, but I don’t know if they would come here. We have two who usually stop by with their mom before going across the road to the grandparents. I was thinking of putting bags out, but it is going to be rainy or snowy depending on the temperatures. I think I will just leave the porch light off and not bother. It would have been a good year for it, since the community party is cancelled. I do enjoy seeing the kids and the mom. This mom helped me at VBS, although it was not her church. She also took guitar lessons from my husband. It is a joy to see her faith shine through her posts on Facebook.
Kathy, the problem with ageing is that the smallest task becomes a projecty.
H.e. I had help this morning changing the clocks on the wall, just in case.
Today is Reformation Day. It was never observed by Baptists. But it is a significant, world changing event. But this went farther than Luther meant. He didn’t mean to reform the church. He wanted to argue.
But he fell in line when the students exposed his thesis to the world.
Morning Chas! Good to see you and take it slow and easy cleaning up the aftermath of the storm …. 😊
Lu wanted out at 3am … she found a coyote on our front walkway and it came at her… husband rushed out the door as she yelped.. coyote ran off. She is ok but is favoring her back leg😟
My plans are mixed today- grading/planning school materials, changing the oil in the Malibu, maybe take recyclables to the nearest center. Ours closed just before COVID lockdown because of money issues, and hasn’t reopened, so the nearest center is 30 miles away. At first we thought it closed because of the lockdown, but it turns out we were supposed to vote for the funding ($1 or so per month on the water bill) in March, but the election was postponed until April. The contract expired April 1st.
Good to hear from RKessler. Knowing how busy I was with school, I cannot imagine working during a pandemic and taking care of a family on top of it.
No real plans for the day. I might dig out ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ to read and chuckle over again for nostalgia, as the radio station used to do a reading of it every October 31. But really, Halloween is generally very uneventful. There was one year Second and I went a Reformation Day party at a nearby Baptist Church – yes, some Baptists do observe Reformation Day, especially those Baptists who do not approve of Halloween and are looking for a substitute. But we were there to provide the party entertainment. Second was a chalk artist – a once quite popular form of church entertain.. err, ministry, alongside things like men’s quartets and puppetry – and I provided background music for her drawing. We had been asked to do so for the party by one of our pastor cousins who was then responsible for the youth in the church.
Good Saturday morning, Wanderers! It’s nice and chilly here. I cleaned the toilet and litter box this morning. Isn’t it appropriate to do those two things at the same time? Recently I’ve noticed that after I flush that Miss Bosley wants to look in the toilet bowl and watch the water refill and bubble until it settles. It is such a kitten thing to do. Why now? A cat is a constant curiosity for humans.
So thankful Chas and Elvera got power before the cold front hit. And so glad he has returned to us! ♡
Thankful to see RK, too. And sorry to know how difficult it is (to see from the sidelines) the various stresses when healthcare personnel are stretched above and beyond the limits of reasonable expectations. Prayers,RK, for your stamina, endurance, and patience through this rugged ride on the bucking bronco of disease, COVID-19. I pray your group can have needed access to all that helps people quickly recover.
My brother stopped by to bring the heavy pot of Night Blooming Cirrus inside before the temp drops into the 30s here. I think I need to get a smaller pot for it so I can manage it myself. I was relating to Chas saying how you need more help when you get older. And you have to make adjustments to make things manageable. Most everything we do can be broken down into smaller tasks, but it takes a lot of thought and effort to figure out what is best in making new paths to accomplishments. I know that is what occupational therapy is about. As we age we get to put on the new hat or badge of being our own occupational therapists.
Good morning. Eldest son and his wife took me up to Moscow with them to visit my dad and step mom. A lovely time was had by all. We visited my brother and his wife and their son and his family as well. Good to reminisce on our old camping days. Nephew brought out some old letters my children had written them in regards to their Moscow Mountain club. Fun!
My other brother has provided my dad with yet another device, a tablet, to aid in conversations. Seems to be working for him. He can no longer talk on the phone (but he has a connection that somebody types out our conversation so he can read the conversation). Nor can he use a computer for emailing. Or a cell phone for texting.
What Luther didn’t intend was for “another” church to be formed; he, indeed, did hope to reform the one he was in, but reform it did not, so …
This year some in our church are joining with the United Reformed church that meets in our same business park for an outdoor Reformation party in a parking area near both churches. I’m sure it will be fun but was surprised by the plan for the gathering, of course. We have some Covid skeptics in our congregation, however.
We always have a Reformation Day party in our church, however, not so much as a Halloween “alternative” but as a way to remember the church roots with some fun.
RK so good to see you back, prayers as you continue to be on the front lines. And Chas, you were missed. How did Elvera adapt? Did you have alternative power sources or could you stay with family?
Kim, that’s a funny picture. 🙂
It was another cold night and morning here, I plan to get the heater ready to use again today (and then hope it works, something I always worry about every year now that it’s 20+ years old). I also need to do some laundry and get to the grocery store. And try to brace for what will be a tense week working, I’m sure, even though I got out of the late-late-election night shift. The daytime duties they’re throwing at me will be hectic and overwhelming enough.
The neighbors are hosting all their grandkids (who are really growing up now), I chatted with her briefly aft her open kitchen window as I was heading out with the dogs for a later-than-usual evening walk last night. She’d just finished with the last dish (mac salad) she had to prepare and was cleaning the kitchen for the last time; a lifelong stay-at-home mom, it’s what she does and has always done. Cook, feed and clean for whatever family is there. She’s an obsessive vacuum-er and lately has been frustrated by one of their Labs who is massively shedding (short-haired dogs often shed a lot more than long-haired dogs).
Nancyjill, close call! The neighbor’s dog on the other side of me, a (large) black retriever mix named Phoebe, had a bite on her face and the vet told them it looked like a coyote got her, too; she gets out of the yard and runs free too often. They declined the stitches due to the price ($1,400), the 30-something son M told me, so the grandmother from Mexico who now is living with them has raised and taken care of cows and other farm animals all her life so she’s tending to the dog; I definitely would have found a way to get the formal vet treatment, maybe try to find a low-cost vet in the area (they do exist), but she’s not my dog.
Michelle, if I remember the sequence correctly, the Reformation could have been avoided, (most likely postponed) if the trial Judges had given Luther an option.
But he stood by his posts. “Here I Stand” is one of the enduring phrases that changed the world.
It likely would have happened somehow, somewhere anyhow. Most certain, the new world (America) would not have permitted ecclesiastical rule.
The 2003 film “Luther” is worth seeing — I’d say what Luther didn’t intend was much of the violence that ensued in the wake of his stand. But he did intend originally to reform the Roman Catholic Church.
Hi RK! Nice to see you back. Sounds like a whirlwind of a busy time.
Chas, glad your power is back on.
I’ve got the house to myself this afternoon. Everyone else is off to work and elsewhere. Today is tackle-the-basement “big room” day for me. There is one reasonably nice-looking corner with comfortable seating near the TV, but the rest of the room is a relative disaster area I’ll describe no further. 😉 I picked up a book from the library yesterday for a little motivation: Basement: Ideas That Work: Creative design solutions for your home. One of those lovely books from The Taunton Press, abundant at our local library.
Can I make our basement common gathering area look as nice as some of the “After” pictures in the book? Well, I can dream. 🙂
I might make a trip to a music store today, too. One of my students who started piano lessons for the first time, in early September, is almost to the end of her 96-page method book already! She has had some prior music reading experience, though, both with treble clef (singing) and bass clef (playing trombone), so now, for piano, it’s simply been a matter of putting the two staves together, learning to read vertically as well as horizontally, and learning technique needed for piano playing. She’s doing extremely well, and asks excellent questions at her lessons. Such a joy to work with her!
I saw ‘Luther’, and the old black and white film ‘Martin Luther’. I also once did a school project on his life, and this read several different biographies of him. Luther certainly didn’t intend the Peasant’s Revolt to be so violent – and it cannot be said it was necessarily his fault, as French experienced a similarly bloody and brutal peasant revolt, the Jacquerie, in 1358. People who have been pushed to the absolute limit of endurance by greed and injustice can snap that way and history shows the result is always a horrible blood bath in which the innocent die with the guilty. But, with age, he did become more intolerant and violent in his language, of which his change from desiring the Jews’ salvation to expressing, in language the Nazis would have approved, that the Jews should be persecuted, was a warning that age is no guarantee of spiritual maturity. I think his real problem was fame. Many other Reformers never had the chance to rest safely on their laurels as he did. William Tyndale, the early reformer John Huss, and many others who challenged the church died for it, as they lacked the political patronage and protection that Martin Luther had. The Elector who protected Luther never really came to the faith, he just found it expedient politically to challenge the authority of the Catholic church. Those who lead the church need to beware of the spiritual danger of too close association with the state – it can prove highly detrimental to the Gospel, and to one’s own spiritual growth. There is a warning in Proverbs: “When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite; don’t desire his choice food, for that food is deceptive.” (Proverbs 23:1-3)
Herod toyed with John the Baptist, hearing him gladly but executing him in the end; Felix listened to Paul preach, but kept him prisoner to please the Jews, and Pilate found no fault with Jesus but had him crucified to avoid a political problem. Secular rulers cannot be trusted with the building of the Church.
Phos is correct.
I took a course on Martin Luther while at Southwestern Seminary. That was circa 1959. I don’t remember lots of it. But on consideration of what Phos said.
Luther and Trump have one thing in common. I don’t like each of them as persons. But I think they are doing great things in their respective areas of responsibility.r
Well, I got some things accomplished today — some of the laundry and the grocery shopping which I did in one of the beach cities north of here, just to get some more time behind the wheel of the ne Jeep so I can get better used to it. It still feels short. But I’m sure, with time, I’ll keep adjusting. Lots of fog rolling in from the ocean as I headed for home.
Watching the very end of Home Alone 2, I remember seeing that beautiful tree lit-up at Rockefeller Center the magical Christmas I spent in NY. I spent Christmas Even in the city, so much fun.
I finally found my halloween/fall porch decor in the garage earlier today, so put 3 of the plastic plain pumpkins out, I figure they can stay through Thanksgiving.
Morning! Sheesh I forgot the time changed…not certain what time it truly is right now but my iPad says 6:10…so yesterday at this time it must have been 7:10? I dislike this messing with my old brain!! 😜
I didn’t get any ghosties last night. One little boy and his dad came by. I handed out four pieces of candy total last night.
Halloween just passed us by. I changed the calendar already. So?
As soon as the election is over Tuesday, there is nothing happening before Christmas.
Thanksgiving is coming, and I have much to be thankful for. But I fear for those of you who might be affected by current events. It looks bad.
OR? Who knows. Something tells me that it isn’t that simple.
Had a sweet time with my family. Their neighbors were waiting to see the little ones. I stayed after the neighbors left and got to hear what is happening.
My clocks definitely changed themselves, as they are all, except my car clock on devices connected to the internet. My mother came down an hour early to watch the service that she watches with my father, and my father had to remind her of the time change, because they hadn’t changed their bedroom clock. Then my mother and I got talking and almost missed our respective services – my parents watch the service of one of my pastor cousins, while I join the city church.
So is there a shortage of pumpkin purée? My neighbor insists there is so I drove into town early to see if I could get some. There was plenty so I purchased a few cans. I now have a pot of pumpkin tomato soup on the stove…
Last evening we decided to watch our two favorite movies. Darby O’Gill and the Little People and Babe. We laughed and smiled the entire time. A good way to close out October…for we know not where November shall take us…but we hold onto the knowing our Lord God does indeed know….
I am so thankful I no longer have to put up with time change. You all should move to Saskatchewan 🙂 (except Kim, it’s too cold for Kim, but she could visit in the summer)
Those who can’t handle the cold can always move to Arizona and have heat instead. I got spoiled by growing up without a time change. Does anyone actually like it?
The time change is especially hard on us during the spring when we lose an hour close to the income tax deadline. I did enjoy getting an extra hour of rest this morning. I think of it as a bit of a nuisance but in the grand scheme of things, the time change is not too big of a deal . . . but if you ask me in the spring I may have a change of mind about that.
We had no trick or treaters. Our new neighbors appeared to have a Halloween get together. They had a helium filled ghost balloon flying from their deck. The fire pit looked inviting. By my midnight bedtime their deck was dark and quiet.
Art and I watched more Hallmark last night. We have the formulas down pat now so we look for the ‘must be included’ scenes such as the awkward interrupted first kiss and the inevitable snow starting to fall at the end. It is endearing to have these familiar scenes, sort of like knowing what to expect on your local grocery store aisles, but at the same time a bit of change to the expected could be like a touch of cloves in an oatmeal cookie, a good and refreshing surprise.
Has anyone read any of the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson? I am in the middle of the first one, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. It is an engaging story and quite cleverly written. Fantasy is not my first choice, but since it is one of the genres I am having to critique now, it seems good to gather more knowledge of it.
We go to church and then come home to zoom Sunday school, so I’m just getting around to real life oh, it’s 12:50, not 1:50 . . .
Interesting story today at church. A man at our church has had a lot of tough times. He spent time in prison, got out, a single mom took him in to sleep on her couch, he broke the rules and had to leave. He was there maybe a year, so was doing well.
He faithfully comes to church; it’s a long story about how he ended up in prison–but he robbed from another family in the church who had taken him in and nurtured his faith and him.
Then he stole their shotgun–for who knows what reason?
They forgave him, wrote and visited him in prison, and now he’s back at our church. After having to leave the single mom’s couch, he went to the homeless shelter and is now homeless. But, my husband hired him to do yard work at our church, and to do the janitorial and he’s around us a lot.
He attends services, ate with us when we did that, and helps out wherever. He has to take a bus to get to us, but he keeps working–and does a good job.
He was talking to my husband today, after my husband complimented on the excellent work he’s been doing, and said that last night as he was getting ready to leave, he came upon a homeless teenage boy cutting down the tarps we use to shade a patio and during the outdoor service.
He talked with the boy, told him he shouldn’t do that, and encouraged the kid to come to the church if he has needs. “They’re very nice here, and they’ll help you.”
After the boy left, he fixed everything back into place.
God is good. He’s done an amazing work in that man’s life. We’re thankful we worship a God of redemption and hope.
I changed the alarm clock radio earlier in the day yesterday. I was quite proud of myself for waking up a bit after 7am instead of earlier (not counting all the wake-up times in the middle of the night. It wasn’t until I went to get ready for church and was puzzled why the radio wasn’t playing that I realized it was not time for it to go off yet. I hadn’t changed my watch! So, I was up just after six instead of seven. Oh, well.
I have squash in the freezer yet from last year when a couple brought some to one of the jams. They gave me a huge one. I have made pumpkin cake from it, which was delicious and freezes well. I have it in 1 cup bags. I am covered if there is a shortage.
My youngest will be cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. Pray for wisdom on whether we should attempt to attend. There will be others there who are not family and several children. It is a four hour drive and weather is always uncertain, too, but that is a normal things. Covid is not. So many different ways to think about that.
Not sure how we will do Thanksgiving. It may just be Art and me since my brother has not decided what he wants to do. I think he had grown fond of our new tradition of going to Cracker Barrel, but with Covid I nixed that for Art and me. It is a very different year.
For Thanksgiving it will be just my husband and me–and for Christmas too. Last Thanksgiving we got a local invitation, hosted by a single lady in our church who was also hosting people from several other countries. Someone in the group ended up being possibly sick and contagious and my husband elected not to go. Later my mother-in-law lectured me about that–she would never have gone somewhere for a holiday meal if her husband couldn’t go too. But he stuck up for me and told her he urged me to go. Thing is, holiday meals matter to me, and they don’t matter to my husband, but he couldn’t exactly say that to her (since she is the proud hostess of so many of them). He likes getting together with people, but it doesn’t specifically matter to him that it’s on a holiday. Anyway, he reminded her that because he has good days and bad, I’ve had plenty of times we’ve made plans to do something and he’s had to cancel, so he insisted I go ahead on this one, even though it was without him.
Last year a few days after Thanksgiving (or possibly a few weeks after), we had the meal we would have had together if we’d both stayed home, Cornish hens. We both liked them, so this year we bought a six-pack of them from Sam’s Club. We can have a pair for Christmas (and some leftovers), though we’ll probably get someone to choose us a turkey for Thanksgiving. But if we can’t get a turkey, we do at last have meat for a holiday dinner. And I did tell him I probably want to put up the tree this year, even though it is a fake one. The last three years I haven’t really wanted to–I don’t like fake ones and it’s a lot of work, and we aren’t “home” on Christmas anyway, usually. But if we aren’t going anywhere, we can at least choose to be a bit festive here.
Good time at church today, stayed a while afterward to catch up with some folks — about half of those who attend (there are probably 60 or so? — come from our home congregation and I was filled in a bit more by a couple of our other elders and their wives about some of the difficulty our session has had in navigating what have been difficult waters.
Also had an interesting discussion about where in the world people can go these days for fair national news. We have some very bright folks in our church and everyone’s quite frustrated with the media landscape. I told them everyone knows he media has self-destructed — except the media which still hasn’t figured that out yet.
My Dem friend at church says he’s still worried that Trump won’t willingly leave office, but I think that’s probably a liberal talking point he’s been exposed to.
+++++++++++++++
I loved the extra hour of sleep. But the cat’s not onboard. She insisted I get up at 5:30 a.m. to feed her a few morsels, which I did, of course, because she won’t allow you to ignore her.
Discussing our home session’s grappling with the covid plans after church today, one person told me there were about 4 positions — among 9 elders (one being on leave right now). Lots of strong opinions on all sides, apparently, praying everything (and everyone) comes back together when this is all over.
Janice, my TN daughter does quite a few holiday meals ordering from Cracker Barrel. I have never been there when she has done that, but she really likes the convenience and says it all tastes great.
DJ, I’ve always made it a habit of staying up until a president is decided. With Bush/Gore, I had to work the next day, but I doggedly stayed up. Sometime well after midnight, somewhere between 2 and 4 a.m., a weary anchor said we might not even know the results in the morning, and so I wrote a note for my roommate (I’d told her I’d leave a note telling her who won) and went to bed. And since then sometimes I’ve stayed up and sometimes I haven’t. This year I don’t expect to know the winner Wednesday morning, and my husband won’t want to “stay up” to watch. I’ll probably watch some of it, though.
Ah, Bush v Gore. I remember that, we were in the (old) newsroom and went I left to head home for a quick turn-around dinner break (at around 8-9 p.m.), Gore was ahead. By the time I returned, Bush was ahead.
DJ, that seems to be the way it works. People leaving Calif seem to buy some fairly nice homes. Maybe one will come by here and offer me a lot of money for my house in the middle of nowhere. It would have to be a lot though as we are not ready to leave.
Years and years ago I thought one method of financial management would be to live for a decade or so in a region with a crazy high cost of living, but keep expenses as low as possible. Four people in a two-bedroom house or something like that. Save as much money as you can, then move to an area with a lower cost of living. I sort of did that. In Chicago I rented at well below average, drove an older car (I’ve never bought a car newer than five years old) and otherwise lived below my income level. (What I didn’t do was take a job with a high level of income; I was working for a nonprofit and earning well below standard pay for my profession. But I liked the job and so it worked out OK.) If I could have stuck it out for just five more years in Chicago, my leaving would have been far more “comfortable,” since the early years were getting on my feet and I was earning quite a bit more at the end than when I started. But ultimately I simply needed to get out of Chicago–it was taking a toll on me and I needed to leave. Likewise I couldn’t have survived California, and would be getting out now if I lived there.
Wandering Views 
Good morning! Sorry I have not been participating much lately. I am super wrapped up in school, work and this dang COVID. We have a big surge in my area and almost half of the patients that present to the ED are infectious with this virus. I do think of you each day and remember all of you in my prayers.
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Hi rk…we have been thinking about you too! Praying you stay safe down there. We are under a new level of restrictions starting Wed…after the election. Seems our area is being inundated with new cases. Thankful you stopped in to check in with us!
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Good morning RK, NancyJ, et. al.
I’m back! ‘
power went off at 10:00 AM Thursday and came back of at 8″30 last night. Inconvenient, but no real damage. However, as it cleared up,it began to get cold.
It is 46 degrees now. But heat is on.
So? Everything is back to whatever is normal around here.
But I have lots of things to do today. Trivial, but they need to be done:
Change clocks, change air filters, etc. Plus some storm clean up. Tha t takes more time and effort. Maybe more than I have by myself.
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We are glad you are back.
Zeta was some storm!
Plans for the day? Nothing.
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I saw this on my morning walk. Sally blew down a lot of trees. The humor in this small, leaning one made me laugh.
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Good morning!
rk, I pray for all of you working in health care these days.
We have a warm up coming. So glad. Our winters get so long when it starts so early. There are so many things I love about winter, but the length is not one of them. OTOH, the deer hunters are not looking forward to the warmth and loss of snow. You can’t make everyone happy. 😉
Glad all is well, Chas. I remind myself that everything I CAN do is good exercise for me To do. I cannot imagine by the time I am your age. Good for you for doing it!
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I did buy some Halloween candy. We have a couple of new neighborhood children, but I don’t know if they would come here. We have two who usually stop by with their mom before going across the road to the grandparents. I was thinking of putting bags out, but it is going to be rainy or snowy depending on the temperatures. I think I will just leave the porch light off and not bother. It would have been a good year for it, since the community party is cancelled. I do enjoy seeing the kids and the mom. This mom helped me at VBS, although it was not her church. She also took guitar lessons from my husband. It is a joy to see her faith shine through her posts on Facebook.
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Kathy, the problem with ageing is that the smallest task becomes a projecty.
H.e. I had help this morning changing the clocks on the wall, just in case.
Today is Reformation Day. It was never observed by Baptists. But it is a significant, world changing event. But this went farther than Luther meant. He didn’t mean to reform the church. He wanted to argue.
But he fell in line when the students exposed his thesis to the world.
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Morning Chas! Good to see you and take it slow and easy cleaning up the aftermath of the storm …. 😊
Lu wanted out at 3am … she found a coyote on our front walkway and it came at her… husband rushed out the door as she yelped.. coyote ran off. She is ok but is favoring her back leg😟
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Glad you’re back, Chas!
My plans are mixed today- grading/planning school materials, changing the oil in the Malibu, maybe take recyclables to the nearest center. Ours closed just before COVID lockdown because of money issues, and hasn’t reopened, so the nearest center is 30 miles away. At first we thought it closed because of the lockdown, but it turns out we were supposed to vote for the funding ($1 or so per month on the water bill) in March, but the election was postponed until April. The contract expired April 1st.
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Good to hear from RKessler. Knowing how busy I was with school, I cannot imagine working during a pandemic and taking care of a family on top of it.
No real plans for the day. I might dig out ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ to read and chuckle over again for nostalgia, as the radio station used to do a reading of it every October 31. But really, Halloween is generally very uneventful. There was one year Second and I went a Reformation Day party at a nearby Baptist Church – yes, some Baptists do observe Reformation Day, especially those Baptists who do not approve of Halloween and are looking for a substitute. But we were there to provide the party entertainment. Second was a chalk artist – a once quite popular form of church entertain.. err, ministry, alongside things like men’s quartets and puppetry – and I provided background music for her drawing. We had been asked to do so for the party by one of our pastor cousins who was then responsible for the youth in the church.
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Good Saturday morning, Wanderers! It’s nice and chilly here. I cleaned the toilet and litter box this morning. Isn’t it appropriate to do those two things at the same time? Recently I’ve noticed that after I flush that Miss Bosley wants to look in the toilet bowl and watch the water refill and bubble until it settles. It is such a kitten thing to do. Why now? A cat is a constant curiosity for humans.
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So thankful Chas and Elvera got power before the cold front hit. And so glad he has returned to us! ♡
Thankful to see RK, too. And sorry to know how difficult it is (to see from the sidelines) the various stresses when healthcare personnel are stretched above and beyond the limits of reasonable expectations. Prayers,RK, for your stamina, endurance, and patience through this rugged ride on the bucking bronco of disease, COVID-19. I pray your group can have needed access to all that helps people quickly recover.
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My brother stopped by to bring the heavy pot of Night Blooming Cirrus inside before the temp drops into the 30s here. I think I need to get a smaller pot for it so I can manage it myself. I was relating to Chas saying how you need more help when you get older. And you have to make adjustments to make things manageable. Most everything we do can be broken down into smaller tasks, but it takes a lot of thought and effort to figure out what is best in making new paths to accomplishments. I know that is what occupational therapy is about. As we age we get to put on the new hat or badge of being our own occupational therapists.
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Ah, Luther was trying to reform the Catholic Church, that was the point.
https://www.michelleule.com/2017/10/31/happy-reformation-day/
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Good morning. Eldest son and his wife took me up to Moscow with them to visit my dad and step mom. A lovely time was had by all. We visited my brother and his wife and their son and his family as well. Good to reminisce on our old camping days. Nephew brought out some old letters my children had written them in regards to their Moscow Mountain club. Fun!
My other brother has provided my dad with yet another device, a tablet, to aid in conversations. Seems to be working for him. He can no longer talk on the phone (but he has a connection that somebody types out our conversation so he can read the conversation). Nor can he use a computer for emailing. Or a cell phone for texting.
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What Luther didn’t intend was for “another” church to be formed; he, indeed, did hope to reform the one he was in, but reform it did not, so …
This year some in our church are joining with the United Reformed church that meets in our same business park for an outdoor Reformation party in a parking area near both churches. I’m sure it will be fun but was surprised by the plan for the gathering, of course. We have some Covid skeptics in our congregation, however.
We always have a Reformation Day party in our church, however, not so much as a Halloween “alternative” but as a way to remember the church roots with some fun.
RK so good to see you back, prayers as you continue to be on the front lines. And Chas, you were missed. How did Elvera adapt? Did you have alternative power sources or could you stay with family?
Kim, that’s a funny picture. 🙂
It was another cold night and morning here, I plan to get the heater ready to use again today (and then hope it works, something I always worry about every year now that it’s 20+ years old). I also need to do some laundry and get to the grocery store. And try to brace for what will be a tense week working, I’m sure, even though I got out of the late-late-election night shift. The daytime duties they’re throwing at me will be hectic and overwhelming enough.
The neighbors are hosting all their grandkids (who are really growing up now), I chatted with her briefly aft her open kitchen window as I was heading out with the dogs for a later-than-usual evening walk last night. She’d just finished with the last dish (mac salad) she had to prepare and was cleaning the kitchen for the last time; a lifelong stay-at-home mom, it’s what she does and has always done. Cook, feed and clean for whatever family is there. She’s an obsessive vacuum-er and lately has been frustrated by one of their Labs who is massively shedding (short-haired dogs often shed a lot more than long-haired dogs).
Nancyjill, close call! The neighbor’s dog on the other side of me, a (large) black retriever mix named Phoebe, had a bite on her face and the vet told them it looked like a coyote got her, too; she gets out of the yard and runs free too often. They declined the stitches due to the price ($1,400), the 30-something son M told me, so the grandmother from Mexico who now is living with them has raised and taken care of cows and other farm animals all her life so she’s tending to the dog; I definitely would have found a way to get the formal vet treatment, maybe try to find a low-cost vet in the area (they do exist), but she’s not my dog.
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Michelle, if I remember the sequence correctly, the Reformation could have been avoided, (most likely postponed) if the trial Judges had given Luther an option.
But he stood by his posts. “Here I Stand” is one of the enduring phrases that changed the world.
It likely would have happened somehow, somewhere anyhow. Most certain, the new world (America) would not have permitted ecclesiastical rule.
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To those who are interested, Michelle’ comment on that explains the entire issue.
I think it was inevitable.
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The 2003 film “Luther” is worth seeing — I’d say what Luther didn’t intend was much of the violence that ensued in the wake of his stand. But he did intend originally to reform the Roman Catholic Church.
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Hi RK! Nice to see you back. Sounds like a whirlwind of a busy time.
Chas, glad your power is back on.
I’ve got the house to myself this afternoon. Everyone else is off to work and elsewhere. Today is tackle-the-basement “big room” day for me. There is one reasonably nice-looking corner with comfortable seating near the TV, but the rest of the room is a relative disaster area I’ll describe no further. 😉 I picked up a book from the library yesterday for a little motivation: Basement: Ideas That Work: Creative design solutions for your home. One of those lovely books from The Taunton Press, abundant at our local library.
Can I make our basement common gathering area look as nice as some of the “After” pictures in the book? Well, I can dream. 🙂
I might make a trip to a music store today, too. One of my students who started piano lessons for the first time, in early September, is almost to the end of her 96-page method book already! She has had some prior music reading experience, though, both with treble clef (singing) and bass clef (playing trombone), so now, for piano, it’s simply been a matter of putting the two staves together, learning to read vertically as well as horizontally, and learning technique needed for piano playing. She’s doing extremely well, and asks excellent questions at her lessons. Such a joy to work with her!
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I saw ‘Luther’, and the old black and white film ‘Martin Luther’. I also once did a school project on his life, and this read several different biographies of him. Luther certainly didn’t intend the Peasant’s Revolt to be so violent – and it cannot be said it was necessarily his fault, as French experienced a similarly bloody and brutal peasant revolt, the Jacquerie, in 1358. People who have been pushed to the absolute limit of endurance by greed and injustice can snap that way and history shows the result is always a horrible blood bath in which the innocent die with the guilty. But, with age, he did become more intolerant and violent in his language, of which his change from desiring the Jews’ salvation to expressing, in language the Nazis would have approved, that the Jews should be persecuted, was a warning that age is no guarantee of spiritual maturity. I think his real problem was fame. Many other Reformers never had the chance to rest safely on their laurels as he did. William Tyndale, the early reformer John Huss, and many others who challenged the church died for it, as they lacked the political patronage and protection that Martin Luther had. The Elector who protected Luther never really came to the faith, he just found it expedient politically to challenge the authority of the Catholic church. Those who lead the church need to beware of the spiritual danger of too close association with the state – it can prove highly detrimental to the Gospel, and to one’s own spiritual growth. There is a warning in Proverbs: “When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite; don’t desire his choice food, for that food is deceptive.” (Proverbs 23:1-3)
Herod toyed with John the Baptist, hearing him gladly but executing him in the end; Felix listened to Paul preach, but kept him prisoner to please the Jews, and Pilate found no fault with Jesus but had him crucified to avoid a political problem. Secular rulers cannot be trusted with the building of the Church.
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Phos is correct.
I took a course on Martin Luther while at Southwestern Seminary. That was circa 1959. I don’t remember lots of it. But on consideration of what Phos said.
Luther and Trump have one thing in common. I don’t like each of them as persons. But I think they are doing great things in their respective areas of responsibility.r
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How can you say that?” You ask.
Because i see the mainstream hates them. That gives you a clue.
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Well, I got some things accomplished today — some of the laundry and the grocery shopping which I did in one of the beach cities north of here, just to get some more time behind the wheel of the ne Jeep so I can get better used to it. It still feels short. But I’m sure, with time, I’ll keep adjusting. Lots of fog rolling in from the ocean as I headed for home.
Watching the very end of Home Alone 2, I remember seeing that beautiful tree lit-up at Rockefeller Center the magical Christmas I spent in NY. I spent Christmas Even in the city, so much fun.
I finally found my halloween/fall porch decor in the garage earlier today, so put 3 of the plastic plain pumpkins out, I figure they can stay through Thanksgiving.
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Chas, if Luther was really as cute as the actor in the 2003 film, I’d forgive him a lot. 🙂
But I’m a girl.
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The local pumpkin patch has been cleared out … Next up, Christmas trees!
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No Christmas trees until after Thanksgiving!
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Scary week in the Pigskin Picks. The winner only got 5 correct. And that is…
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Must be watching all the Hallmark movies that’s giving me the edge with the Pigskin Picks ♡
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With other things going on, I forgot all about the pigskin picks.
And I would have won. Purdue beat Ilinois.
Good game.
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I should have let you pick the tie-breaker game, Chas. I chose Clemson at Notre Dame.
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Morning! Sheesh I forgot the time changed…not certain what time it truly is right now but my iPad says 6:10…so yesterday at this time it must have been 7:10? I dislike this messing with my old brain!! 😜
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Good morning. I just sent son back to read his book some more as he forgot the time change.
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I didn’t get any ghosties last night. One little boy and his dad came by. I handed out four pieces of candy total last night.
Halloween just passed us by. I changed the calendar already. So?
As soon as the election is over Tuesday, there is nothing happening before Christmas.
Thanksgiving is coming, and I have much to be thankful for. But I fear for those of you who might be affected by current events. It looks bad.
OR? Who knows. Something tells me that it isn’t that simple.
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My clocks changed themselves. At least I think they did. 🧐🤪
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Had a sweet time with my family. Their neighbors were waiting to see the little ones. I stayed after the neighbors left and got to hear what is happening.
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Kathaleena,
Love the pic. 🙂
They’re adorable. 🙂
I’ll post it tomorrow in the header.
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My clocks definitely changed themselves, as they are all, except my car clock on devices connected to the internet. My mother came down an hour early to watch the service that she watches with my father, and my father had to remind her of the time change, because they hadn’t changed their bedroom clock. Then my mother and I got talking and almost missed our respective services – my parents watch the service of one of my pastor cousins, while I join the city church.
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So is there a shortage of pumpkin purée? My neighbor insists there is so I drove into town early to see if I could get some. There was plenty so I purchased a few cans. I now have a pot of pumpkin tomato soup on the stove…
Last evening we decided to watch our two favorite movies. Darby O’Gill and the Little People and Babe. We laughed and smiled the entire time. A good way to close out October…for we know not where November shall take us…but we hold onto the knowing our Lord God does indeed know….
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I am so thankful I no longer have to put up with time change. You all should move to Saskatchewan 🙂 (except Kim, it’s too cold for Kim, but she could visit in the summer)
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Those who can’t handle the cold can always move to Arizona and have heat instead. I got spoiled by growing up without a time change. Does anyone actually like it?
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The time change is especially hard on us during the spring when we lose an hour close to the income tax deadline. I did enjoy getting an extra hour of rest this morning. I think of it as a bit of a nuisance but in the grand scheme of things, the time change is not too big of a deal . . . but if you ask me in the spring I may have a change of mind about that.
We had no trick or treaters. Our new neighbors appeared to have a Halloween get together. They had a helium filled ghost balloon flying from their deck. The fire pit looked inviting. By my midnight bedtime their deck was dark and quiet.
Art and I watched more Hallmark last night. We have the formulas down pat now so we look for the ‘must be included’ scenes such as the awkward interrupted first kiss and the inevitable snow starting to fall at the end. It is endearing to have these familiar scenes, sort of like knowing what to expect on your local grocery store aisles, but at the same time a bit of change to the expected could be like a touch of cloves in an oatmeal cookie, a good and refreshing surprise.
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It’s still so windy here. I love hearing the crunchy leaves blowing in the wind.
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Has anyone read any of the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson? I am in the middle of the first one, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. It is an engaging story and quite cleverly written. Fantasy is not my first choice, but since it is one of the genres I am having to critique now, it seems good to gather more knowledge of it.
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We go to church and then come home to zoom Sunday school, so I’m just getting around to real life oh, it’s 12:50, not 1:50 . . .
Interesting story today at church. A man at our church has had a lot of tough times. He spent time in prison, got out, a single mom took him in to sleep on her couch, he broke the rules and had to leave. He was there maybe a year, so was doing well.
He faithfully comes to church; it’s a long story about how he ended up in prison–but he robbed from another family in the church who had taken him in and nurtured his faith and him.
Then he stole their shotgun–for who knows what reason?
They forgave him, wrote and visited him in prison, and now he’s back at our church. After having to leave the single mom’s couch, he went to the homeless shelter and is now homeless. But, my husband hired him to do yard work at our church, and to do the janitorial and he’s around us a lot.
He attends services, ate with us when we did that, and helps out wherever. He has to take a bus to get to us, but he keeps working–and does a good job.
He was talking to my husband today, after my husband complimented on the excellent work he’s been doing, and said that last night as he was getting ready to leave, he came upon a homeless teenage boy cutting down the tarps we use to shade a patio and during the outdoor service.
He talked with the boy, told him he shouldn’t do that, and encouraged the kid to come to the church if he has needs. “They’re very nice here, and they’ll help you.”
After the boy left, he fixed everything back into place.
God is good. He’s done an amazing work in that man’s life. We’re thankful we worship a God of redemption and hope.
Hopefully, he’ll have a place to live soon.
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I changed the alarm clock radio earlier in the day yesterday. I was quite proud of myself for waking up a bit after 7am instead of earlier (not counting all the wake-up times in the middle of the night. It wasn’t until I went to get ready for church and was puzzled why the radio wasn’t playing that I realized it was not time for it to go off yet. I hadn’t changed my watch! So, I was up just after six instead of seven. Oh, well.
I have squash in the freezer yet from last year when a couple brought some to one of the jams. They gave me a huge one. I have made pumpkin cake from it, which was delicious and freezes well. I have it in 1 cup bags. I am covered if there is a shortage.
My youngest will be cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. Pray for wisdom on whether we should attempt to attend. There will be others there who are not family and several children. It is a four hour drive and weather is always uncertain, too, but that is a normal things. Covid is not. So many different ways to think about that.
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Not sure how we will do Thanksgiving. It may just be Art and me since my brother has not decided what he wants to do. I think he had grown fond of our new tradition of going to Cracker Barrel, but with Covid I nixed that for Art and me. It is a very different year.
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For Thanksgiving it will be just my husband and me–and for Christmas too. Last Thanksgiving we got a local invitation, hosted by a single lady in our church who was also hosting people from several other countries. Someone in the group ended up being possibly sick and contagious and my husband elected not to go. Later my mother-in-law lectured me about that–she would never have gone somewhere for a holiday meal if her husband couldn’t go too. But he stuck up for me and told her he urged me to go. Thing is, holiday meals matter to me, and they don’t matter to my husband, but he couldn’t exactly say that to her (since she is the proud hostess of so many of them). He likes getting together with people, but it doesn’t specifically matter to him that it’s on a holiday. Anyway, he reminded her that because he has good days and bad, I’ve had plenty of times we’ve made plans to do something and he’s had to cancel, so he insisted I go ahead on this one, even though it was without him.
Last year a few days after Thanksgiving (or possibly a few weeks after), we had the meal we would have had together if we’d both stayed home, Cornish hens. We both liked them, so this year we bought a six-pack of them from Sam’s Club. We can have a pair for Christmas (and some leftovers), though we’ll probably get someone to choose us a turkey for Thanksgiving. But if we can’t get a turkey, we do at last have meat for a holiday dinner. And I did tell him I probably want to put up the tree this year, even though it is a fake one. The last three years I haven’t really wanted to–I don’t like fake ones and it’s a lot of work, and we aren’t “home” on Christmas anyway, usually. But if we aren’t going anywhere, we can at least choose to be a bit festive here.
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Good time at church today, stayed a while afterward to catch up with some folks — about half of those who attend (there are probably 60 or so? — come from our home congregation and I was filled in a bit more by a couple of our other elders and their wives about some of the difficulty our session has had in navigating what have been difficult waters.
Also had an interesting discussion about where in the world people can go these days for fair national news. We have some very bright folks in our church and everyone’s quite frustrated with the media landscape. I told them everyone knows he media has self-destructed — except the media which still hasn’t figured that out yet.
My Dem friend at church says he’s still worried that Trump won’t willingly leave office, but I think that’s probably a liberal talking point he’s been exposed to.
+++++++++++++++
I loved the extra hour of sleep. But the cat’s not onboard. She insisted I get up at 5:30 a.m. to feed her a few morsels, which I did, of course, because she won’t allow you to ignore her.
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Everyone stocking up with pizza and popcorn for election night?
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I have several good books and should be perfectly happy. 🙂
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I can’t help it, being a news and political junky from way back — gotta watch those returns.
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Discussing our home session’s grappling with the covid plans after church today, one person told me there were about 4 positions — among 9 elders (one being on leave right now). Lots of strong opinions on all sides, apparently, praying everything (and everyone) comes back together when this is all over.
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Janice, my TN daughter does quite a few holiday meals ordering from Cracker Barrel. I have never been there when she has done that, but she really likes the convenience and says it all tastes great.
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I have been out gazing at the night sky.
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fifty seven
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It is much easier to do when the sun goes down earlier, or when we go back to not daylight savings time. Like now.
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My motion lights go on sonar .
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Or sooner.
But it may be related to sonar as well.
My solar lanterns have to be recalibrated now.
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We all signed a hymnal today for a family moving to Boise.
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One guy said they’d be probably buying a “mansion” for the cost of an LA County California home.
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DJ, I’ve always made it a habit of staying up until a president is decided. With Bush/Gore, I had to work the next day, but I doggedly stayed up. Sometime well after midnight, somewhere between 2 and 4 a.m., a weary anchor said we might not even know the results in the morning, and so I wrote a note for my roommate (I’d told her I’d leave a note telling her who won) and went to bed. And since then sometimes I’ve stayed up and sometimes I haven’t. This year I don’t expect to know the winner Wednesday morning, and my husband won’t want to “stay up” to watch. I’ll probably watch some of it, though.
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Ah, Bush v Gore. I remember that, we were in the (old) newsroom and went I left to head home for a quick turn-around dinner break (at around 8-9 p.m.), Gore was ahead. By the time I returned, Bush was ahead.
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*when I left
I believe some stations had even “called” the race for Gore.
But everything was completely chaotic by the time I got back to work, with the results way up in the air (as they’d remain for some time, of course).
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DJ, that seems to be the way it works. People leaving Calif seem to buy some fairly nice homes. Maybe one will come by here and offer me a lot of money for my house in the middle of nowhere. It would have to be a lot though as we are not ready to leave.
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Years and years ago I thought one method of financial management would be to live for a decade or so in a region with a crazy high cost of living, but keep expenses as low as possible. Four people in a two-bedroom house or something like that. Save as much money as you can, then move to an area with a lower cost of living. I sort of did that. In Chicago I rented at well below average, drove an older car (I’ve never bought a car newer than five years old) and otherwise lived below my income level. (What I didn’t do was take a job with a high level of income; I was working for a nonprofit and earning well below standard pay for my profession. But I liked the job and so it worked out OK.) If I could have stuck it out for just five more years in Chicago, my leaving would have been far more “comfortable,” since the early years were getting on my feet and I was earning quite a bit more at the end than when I started. But ultimately I simply needed to get out of Chicago–it was taking a toll on me and I needed to leave. Likewise I couldn’t have survived California, and would be getting out now if I lived there.
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Well, it’s different when you’re a native I suppose
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Yep, that’s probably true. I might have survived Chicago if I had born there, or Phoenix if I had stayed there.
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