I hope everyone else is having a good morning.
Elvera is still in bed, she can’t get her legs to work.
She has a helper. LindaS was over here for a while but has gone back home.
Carol, the helper, is giving her a s “sponge bath”. I’ve never heard of that before, but I can imagine what that is.
Me? I slept well, but am just as tired as before. It isn’t from physical activity and rest doesn’t help.
Due to circumstances now. You are the only friends I have. Besides kin.
Bro-in-law, Mel, has his own problems now and the others have died. And Lions hasn’t met for almost a year and I have forgotten most of them.
Since it is Saturday, I think that calls for some music. I came across this lovely rendition of the traditional Irish Swallowtail Jig, a piece which I have played and arranged myself, so I always like to find new arrangements:
Speaking of music, last night I attended a concert. Virtually of course. It was Second’s gift to me. She bought a ticket to a virtual concert by a Baroque ensemble, Tafelmusik. The concert was of pieces composed for performance at home, so the ensemble consisted of one violinist, one violist, one cellist, one double bassist, and oboist. The string players wore masks, while the oboist sat behind a plexiglass barrier, but their music was as beautiful as ever. The musicians talked about the pieces, and one of the composers, Johann Baptiste Vanhal, was born an indentured servant, or serf, in Bohemia (Czech Republic) who bought his freedom with his musical skill.
Chas, assuming Elvera is in bed while they bathe her, it’s often called a “bed bath.” I had one myself when I was in the hospital recovering from surgery a few years ago.
When I was a child, we often camped, sometimes in tents but more often in a trailer. Our first trailer wasn’t “self-contained,” meaning it didn’t have a toilet or shower facilities. We had a total of three trailers over my time growing up, just one of them bought new (a Wilderness). Two had toilets, and I don’t remember which had showers. One, possibly two, had the tiniest showers imaginable. If you were hooked up to camping facilities, then you could take a shower. If you were in a tent or a trailer without a shower, or if you were in a trailer but using water from the tank rather than being hooked up to water (and needing to scrimp on water usage), then you’d take a sponge bath. (We used a washcloth but still called it a sponge bath.) I had quite a bit of practice through the years, and so I still take them when I don’t have much time to get ready or when I’m not particularly dirty but just need to freshen up a bit.
Morning. Continued prayers for you and Elvera , Chas….we are blessed to be called friend..we love you….
Up until I was in the first grade we lived in the other half of a duplex next to my Grandmother and Great grandparents. We had no indoor bathroom. Mom would give us a “spit bath”…yep..that’s what she called it…just washing down with soap and water. We only had a “real bath” on Saturday nights…that is when she filled the galvanized tub with warm water and we got to sit down 😊
Last week (I think it was), I wrote about having to gather some things together for when I apply for Hubby’s Social Security. The one that I thought would be hard to find, or even not around, was his W-2 for the last year he worked. (“How am I ever going to find that?!”)
After a few days (of not even bothering to look yet), it occurred to me that I would have had that when I had my/our taxes done the following tax season after his death. And I remembered where the folder of the tax stuff was filed!
I went to a concert last night, too, though nowhere near as wonderful as Roscuro’s.
In our case, it was a world premiere through Wheaton College of a composition about the Chicago River, written by my daughter’s roommate–a bonafide, prize-winning composer.
(He’s currently writing a piece for her called, “The Room Next Door.”
She admits to not caring much for Patrick’s work, but he does occasionally accompany her to performances at Lutheran Churches because he loves choral work.
Anyway, he’s a nice guy (with a girlfriend), so when I saw he had a free premier through Wheaton, I signed on.
After an exhausting day on several levels, I was cooking while the performance played and I didn’t realize Patrick’s piece was the one we were listening to (Don’t ask me why Mr. Cringing Music Lover couldn’t read my mind to call me back to really listen).
Anyway, as I thought about it this morning, I realized the music brought to my mind pictures of sharp straight lines veering to earth, icy and cold. I don’t like that image.
One of my favorite pieces is about another river, Smetana’s The Moldau–which starts out as a small rill tumbling around rocks in the mountains and then building into a river the size of the Danube in a triumphant ending.
I love harmonies, and the mixing of voices and sounds, rounded, rich, warm, colorful, that brings us together. (See Bach)
Patrick’s music doesn’t do that. He composes on a computerized piano–which doesn’t necessarily (though I believe it can be programmed), gives you the rich lush depth of a good piano or a cello. He prefers sharp sounds–like a high flute, rather than rounded full sounds.
I’d never thought about music that way until this morning, so it was fun to see Roscuro’s comments on her concert. I would have gone with you, Roscuro! 🙂
Michelle, I do not really like computerized instruments. Computers cannot produce the overtones that acoustic instruments do. Electric instruments still have enough acoustic components that they have the overtones, but computerized instruments have none of that. The sound is dead, because there is none of the echoes and whispers of higher and lower tones that occur when the note on a real instrument is played. I used to love as a child, playing a note on the piano with the damper pedal down, and listening to all the other strings that vibrated above and below that one note that the hammer had struck. When I was learning to play violin, my teacher taught me to play in tune by telling me to listen for the ringing overtones that would occur when I played certain notes.
In Nashville I had a roommate who was a musician. She sang and she played the piano, and she taught both voice and piano. And she walked dogs and babysat, and did whatever she could to earn money, but none of it was enough to pay back loans on a master’s degree in a field with little possibility of success.
Anyway, she told me she was going to get me a ticket sometime when she was singing, and one day she did. She left before I did, since she was one of the performers. I got the information off the ticket and googled how to get to the location. I wrote the directions down and dressed up, including shoes I couldn’t readily walk in. I was driving in a part of town that wasn’t familiar, and it took longer to get there than I expected, but I was still OK on time. Then I parked in a parking garage (free for the first half hour, $8 or $10 or something like that after the first half hour). I walked to the location a couple of blocks away, and it was clearly not where anything was happening that evening. No people anywhere. I finally found a sign explaining that it was under construction this season, and that concerts were in such and such a location (NOT matching what my ticket said). I asked some people where that other location was, and was told it was two miles or so that way. No way could I walk that far, and back, in my shoes, by this time I would be late and had no idea where I would park, and as I recall I couldn’t drive that way because of construction or one-way streets or something. My health was also not very good in that season.
Finally, discouraged, I returned to my car. As I drove out of the parking garage, my time came up at 32 minutes or 34 minutes or something like that–barely beyond the free half hour and now I’d have to pay full price for a concert I hadn’t been able to attend. The garage attendant wasn’t sympathetic. I told him I was barely into the “extra” time and was parked in the wrong location; we already had to eat the price of the ticket unless my roommate could get it refunded, could I please just pay two or three dollars and call it good? He kept saying no, I owed the whole amount, just as though I were there for the full evening. I finally started to cry; I wasn’t putting on a performance, I was just frustrated. I wasn’t earning very much money, I was missing an event I wanted to attend and would disappoint my roommate when she found out I hadn’t made it, and paying a lot of money to park at the wrong location wasn’t what I wanted to do at that moment. When I started to cry, I said, “I’m asking for mercy here,” and he hit the button and let me through. I think he was disgusted with me. Thing is, I hadn’t even noticed how the price structure worked, that after just half an hour I had to pay the entire fee and not, say, $2 for the first half hour. If I had, I would have hurried to get back within the half hour; as it was, I barely missed it. But I never did get to hear my roommate sing, because she moved out soon after that and soon after that, my husband and I began courting.
From The Heidelberg catechism, this one seemed good for today.
Q: What is thy only comfort in life and in death?
A: That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me, that without the will of my Father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes.
The house has been full of people. Mostly family rearranging stuff so Elvera can stay in bed and be treated and I can sleep with her. That takes some moving furniture around and some out.
But we have always slept tangled up together and don’t want to change that.
Computers cannot produce the overtones that acoustic instruments do.
I find the same true with digitally recorded music over the older analog. I hooked up a record player to the computer to transfer some of my old LPs to mp3. I can hear the difference in the older music as it has better stereo quality than the newer digital versions. And the music sounds better, even with the occasional scratchiness of a 40 year old LP.
Michelle, electric has grown on me for getting effects that add to the timbre combinations in an ensemble. Alone I don’t care for them, but electric guitars especially, which are quite acoustic when their frames are made of wood, can add something to an orchestral ensemble.
Speaking of acoustic effects and overtones, the use of overtones singing in traditional music can be absolutely unearthly sounding. I recently came across this Mongolian traditional performer, the traditional throat singing with overtones comes at the end of the song:
Peter, yes there is a richness to LP recordings that digital recordings loses. That is the reason I have kept the 22 volume (each volume has 3-4 LPs) set of classical recordings I inherited from my music teacher. My father still has a functioning stereo system hooked up to his record player, so every once in a while he or I play our records – he has a few classical recording but most are of his favorite artists from his youth: Chet Atkins, Gordon Lightfoot, The Tijuana Brass, The Moody Blues, etc.
As I often say, LP recordings are an actual physical record of sound, while digital recordings are only a copy built from electronic codes. It is a bit like photographs, film photographs are a physical record of the impression of light waves, digital photographs are only an electronic copy. I have had the privilege of seeing some of the greatest film photograph portraits ever taken, and there is a three dimensional quality to them that digital copies can never reproduce. I would say the sound of an LP as a similar three dimensional quality – you can hear layers that are not audible in digital copies.
Chas, you and Elvera are in my prayers and deeply loved.
Kim, I pray you and Mr. P make full recovery from covid with no lingering ill effects. RKessler, I am sorry to hear you contracted the disease as well. My prayer for you is the same.
Throat singing, or khoomei, exists in Mongolia and Tuva (a region of southern Siberia that borders Monglia). It began among nomadic herdsmen on the steppes of Central Asia to imitate the sounds of nature around them. The people of the Arctic regions also have throat singing traditions – the Inuit also use throat singing to imitate natural sounds around them, only in their case, it is a friendly competition in which two people – traditionally women – stand face to face and echo each other’s throat singing. The competition ends when one person breaks down – they have a keen sense of laughter. One wonders if the places it exists are evidence of migratory patterns of people groups.
There is nothing like the joy of hearing live acoustic music. I have particularly been enjoying hearing one of our studio’s violin teachers working with one of his students on a Bach violin concerto. Awesome to pass through the hallway and go past his studio door, even while it’s closed, and hear the student playing the piece.
I am finding much joy both in working at the studio — now up to three days a week since beginning of January — and at home with my students here. Next week I have three new students starting and another one expanding from 30 minutes a week to 45.
Chas, I cherish your friendship and feel very blessed that Jo arranged for Art and me to get to visit with you and Elvera. I am glad to know you two are being well cared for at this special time in your lives. All of us on the blog would be doing more to show our love if we lived near and did not have the Covid restrictions. You are able to share joys and sorrows here 24/7 knowing if everyone happens to be asleep when you post it will only be a few hours before someone will read and respond to what you wrote.
I took a sponge bath last night. I go to Downey, CA for my Kaiser doctors. It is a 2 day trip, each way. I saw a wound care nurse and an opthomologist. I have had ugly lower legs for about 30 years. Occasionally they become open wounds. I had an open wound last month when I went in. The wound care nurse wrapped my legs with two stretchy bandages and then covered them with knee high nylon stockings. They are supposed to stay on for 2 weeks And then get them changed. This means that I don’t get to shower of bathe unless I cover them to keep water off them.
In effect, this means I use a wash cloth with soap i.e. a sponge bath!
We are sure that you have had many friends. The cares of life and the Covid lock down have separated many. Even here on Wandering Views we don’t often mention our cares of life. Did I let anyone here know that my wife and I spent 14 days in quarantine? Of seven people in our house, 6 came down with Covid, 3 were tested and came back positive. 3 were just sick with it and 1, me, didn’t get much of anything. I probably got the “Rona” but it didn’t do much to me.
I don’t know about others, but I always look for your first post of the day. We look for your comments and God inspired wisdom. You don’t try to brow beat us, you just say what should be obvious to anyone with a little wisdom and smarts. We look forward to you everyday!
Go with God. I have to stop now, those tears of sorrow for my friend sting.
Thanks Bob, et. al.
I can’t use “Like” because when I click “like”, I get directed to a page where I have to sign in, etc. I never get past that, so I don’t go further to “like” anything.
But thanks everyone.
You’re in all our hearts and prayers Chas. I saw your first post — it was the only one there — when I woke up early this morning so I’ve been praying off and on today. We love you. And we love Elvera.
You know I have a distinct mental picture of you two crossing paths in that church balcony, a story you’ve told often. “The moment,” God ordained indeed.
Ditto to all the other comments here today, I’m late the conversation.
Beautiful music, I loved the “jig.”
And I loved the Heidelberg Catechism (Q1), it’s one we frequently recite in church.
Cheryl (re your story of getting to the concert late), crying sometimes is quite effective 🙂 One of our young female reporters a long time ago said she got out of a traffic citation that way.
But regarding music — A few years ago I was tooling Carol around on a Good Friday in Hollywood. After a meal at the Cheesecake Factory at The Grove, we still had some more time to kill before the church service at Hollywood Presbyterian was to begin and she really wanted to stop at Ameba Music, an iconic newer store on Sunset that I’d not had occasion to visit (in my day we had Tower Records on the same stretch that I was very familiar with in my younger years).
I was amazed by this very contemporary store (this was maybe in 2015-16?) that was filled with old-school LPs (it also looked and felt like places from the ’70s, graffiti on all the walls). I spent some time talking to one of the clerks about “why” LPs (again)? Fascinating to me, I wasn’t aware of the trend back to LPs due to the better sound qualities.
I grew up with LPs and felt they had some drawbacks, including the scratchiness and skipping qualities, along with being awkward to store. I was happy to move on, through the decades, to other forms of easier, longer-lasting and cheaper recordings. I obviously don’t have a musician’s ear when it comes to some of those issues, but admire those who do and can appreciate the differences.
Cheryl- The horse head on the Mongolian instrument is significant since horses are important in Mongolia. Having a Mongolian sister-in-law helps to know these things. A traditional blessing there is to give someone a mug of fresh horse milk.
I remember the skips on the records due to a scratch here and there. We played this one James Taylor album over and over and over when first married. When we hear that song come on while listening to Pandora we look at each other and say “where’s the skip”?!! 😂
My neighbor, the 35-year-old teenager who now buys and re-sells used record albums to make some extra money, had one record playing in the garage the other day that got stuck and repeated the line over and over again (I guess he wasn’t close enough to nudge it forward). Brought back memories.
Roscuro- I.ve been listening to some of the artists other music. Hauntingly beautiful. I never realized a human could produce two different notes at the same time.
Peter, there are Western performers who can do overtone singing but it is more of a novelty act, not something incorporated into most compositions with human voice. Overtone singing because it involves using the the throat as the sound column, is wordless, and Western music overwhelmingly uses singing to conveys words, rather than as a musical instrument.
Sometimes a new beginning is a good time to make some changes. When my husband and I were planning to move, I pointed out that we were empty nesters now and not trying to work around the schedule of kids who were in school or working, so after the move we could start eating our main meal in the middle of the day rather than in the evening. (He’d mentioned that as something he’d like to try.) We made the change with the move, and it has worked well. Recently I pointed out that our attempt to read a passage of Scripture together in the morning after breakfast rarely worked because we rarely eat breakfast at the same time, yet we nearly always eat lunch/dinner together, and reading after lunch could work better for us. We’ve been doing that this week, and it has indeed worked better.
As last year was finishing up, I got to Revelation in my reading of the New Testament. By reading half the book each of the last two days of the year, I wrapped up the book and the year at the same time, and decided to go ahead and try to read all the way through this year, but without following a written plan. Rather, I read a few chapters and try to stop when one theme ends and a new one is beginning. I have read all the way through in a year several times, using various plans, but this time I’m just using a marker. But this is what I’m doing different: I’ve always had a hard time settling in to a specific time of day to read the Word. “First thing in the morning” doesn’t work for me, since I’m sleepy, my vocabulary hasn’t fully entered my brain, and often my eyes are blurry. But “last thing at night” often doesn’t work, either, since the day gets away from me. So it has often ended up being a bit erratic, whatever time of day I think of it and am not in the middle of something. This year I decided to try a different plan: First thing in the morning I drink a glass of juice or eat a piece of fruit and then I sit down and read a few chapters. Often I end up reading more later in the day, too, but having a specific setting is useful when setting habits. A few days I have gone out for a walk as soon as I have gotten up and dressed, because there is frost or fog out, and those don’t linger. But on those mornings, I’m conscious that I’m beginning the day by reading the second book of God (creation), but as soon as I enter the house I’m ready to go to the first Book. At any rate, so far it has worked for me, and since I thought something like that might help someone else with the same dilemma, I thought it worth mentioning.
I also decided I was tired of having unproductive Mondays in which I felt guilty for not getting much editing done, and decided Monday is just going to be a non-editing day. If there is housework I didn’t get to on Saturday, I can do it. I can make cards, take a long walk, spend extra time cooking a meal that will give us several days of leftovers, send emails, etc. And with that change, I have redeemed Monday as a productive day of the week instead of a day of feeling guilty because I’m not accomplishing much.
Chas, your simple good nights to me have meant so much to me over the years as I live here all alone. I, with Janice and Art, was so glad to get to meet you and your sweetie and even see your home. I have saved some of your stories from on here to savor.
I also can’t like on here, but I would.
Chas, I also share your view of our country right now and am grieving for it. It is an even greater grief to me to see that my children are going along. But, knowing that you see it as I do is a great comfort.
Thanks for those ideas, Cheryl, I always struggle with a pattern for Scripture reading. I, too, am not very with it in the mornings and I work most days, “with it” or not, haha.
Talked to my one cousin today, she’s set to get her vaccine on Thursday, our other cousin was “shot” with his 2nd followup vaccine already last week (his MD facilitated that as he’s been in the middle of getting several pre-cancerous skin spots removed).
I need to drop off an Amazon return at UPS today and I think I’ll also grab a car ride around that. It’s probably also time to get gas, it’s finally below half a tank (after probably 2 months since the last fill-up?).
I threw in a load of laundry and have some dishes to put away. I should do more housework, but don’t think I’ll get to it today.
Our sermon tomorrow is on responding to a pandemic, very topical. Our church isn’t alone struggling through the various responses and opinions. I’ve appreciated how our church leaders, while disagreeing even among themselves somewhat, have continually encouraged us to try to accept and understand the convictions of those brothers and sisters who see things differently — and never to assign “dark” motives to those who disagree or have other convictions that we do.
Good principle to apply in politics and other issues, as well.
I am VERY uninterested in music at church. They sing the songs on “Christian Radio.” I don’t know them. I don’t like them. I won’t listen to the radio. I find them boring!! They have little to no harmony. They are uninteresting. At church, they are put up on a screen, there is no written music.
Two Sundays ago, it all came together for me; I had that flash of light, understanding dawned! I have never been able to understand the words of pop music. I don’t and never have been able to know what the singers were saying. If I try to listen to “Christian Radio” I don’t understand what is said on those songs either. They do nothing for me.
Is it because I am not musical enough? No, I was Second Chair Tuba in the All Southern California Honor Band (from Bakersfield to the Mexican border.) in 1965. I am musical enough, I just don’t know what most singers are saying.
I like harmonies and rhythm, not words. These things are sad in most “Church music” of the modern church. I would rather walk in after the music.
Bob, at our church in Hendersonville, NC, we attended an early service that catered to the elderly. That is, they sang songs that had melody and we old folks liked to sing. At the early service (when they had it. we haven’t been inside for a year now.) It was the same kind of music. Not singable.
My daughter helped me. I was at her house and a song came on that moved me. I went into the kitchen where it was playing and just stood there. After it was over she told me that it was on pandora and that I had it on my iphone. I knew nothing. So she set up pandora for me with the hymns that I like. And it will come on on my car radio if I set it up. In January I quit listening to talk radio, knowing that I just couldn’t, things were getting too bad. So I learned how to set up pandora and listened to hymns everywhere that I went.
Pandora is great, I listen to that in my car also — and sometimes I’ll just listen to my own songs I’ve saved through the years, religious and secular, through my phone which plays through the bluetooth radio also.
All the people are gone now. Elvera is in bed. I was just sitting here thinking of nothing at all, then it suddenly occurred to me that some idiots were talking about going back to the moon.
We have been there. Nothing there. I can’t think of a single reason that we might want to go back to the moon.
Nor Mars.
I suspect people are trying, desperately, to unify the country around something exciting, technological, and new. They’re also still looking for life outside of earth.
One of my husband’s college roommates went to work all those years ago to “dream up” new space ideas. I should google to find out what happened to him.
Michelle, I also suspect that some people would really, really love to go to the moon themselves. Some may have a “tourist” interest, some a scientific one, some something else. Lots and lots of people have been to Yellowstone, but I never have, and I’d like to go there myself someday.
I have been holding, cuddling, feeding, changing and rocking twin boys for the past week. Wow, two babies are a lot of work (as Mumsee knows). Several times I’ve had them for a few hours all by myself while their mommy sleeps. It’s so fun to be a grandma!
When you go to Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, you don’t have to carry your own air. And you can turn around without help.
Nothing is at risk.
You can spend several million on a trip to the moon.
When you get there, you find there is nothing there.
And getting home again is a real task. You don’t just turn around.
I used to give briefings on Lunar mapping. At the end, I show a picture of the astronaut standing beside his capsule.
All dressed up in his Lunar garb. I say, “Astronaut (forgot who) in his Lunar bikini.”
Good morning everyone.
Elvera is still stretched out in bed. Not doing well at all.
Prayers appreciated. She hurts occasionally, but not constantly. And that’s something.
Not much, but something.
It’s freezing rain and our church is having the entire service on-line today. We’ll see how that works. But it makes sense not to get out in this.
Good morning, Chas. Good evening, Jo.
G’day to everyone else.
Glad to know that Elvera is not in too much pain, Chas. That is a big deal for her and for all of us. That is part of taking good care of her each moment. You are, to me, the best example of a loving husband that I have ever known in my life. You are doing the most, even if it seems little to you, for your wife that is humanly possible. If you feel weak, God steps in to be your strength. Having God in the equation makes all the difference. Praying for you my Brother and Friend in Christ.
I was awakened by a tap on my door. The door then opened, and Sixth entered. “It’s my birthday,” he said. “So you have to get up and get some cake.” I explained cake is not generally consumed in the morning.
Kare – my MIL found a t-shirt that said “If I’d known how much fun grandchildren are, I would’ve had them first.” Youngest SIL was 15 at the time and didn’t appreciate that one.
I didn’t sleep well last night. I woke up at 2:00 and I had an idea on how to improve a short story I wrote 20 years ago that would not go away. I finally got up and scribbled the idea down, after 3:00, then lay down on the couch. Finally got back to sleep around 5 AM.
This world is not my home,
I’m only passing thru
My treasue’s all laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angel’s beckon me
to Heaven’s open door.
And I can’t feel at home
In this world anymore.
Chas is it possible to put Elvera in a hospital bed? It would be easier on her and possibly you could curl up beside her. I did that when BG was in the hospital. Then it would be easier to get her up to sit in a chair. You don’t
Want her being lifted or tugged and certainly don’t want bedsores or anything.
Possibly Roscuro has some suggestions on how to make everyone more comfortable.
Hugs and love to you both.
The modern hospital bed can be lowered close to the floor. But, yes, a hospital bed has its own risks. Even with the bed rails up, supervision is needed to make sure the occupant doesn’t try to climb over the rails, as that is a much worse fall than just sliding off the bed. Also, for someone who has slept their whole life in one bed, changing beds can be very disorienting. All in all it may be best for Elvera to be where she is. And I am sure Chas, that your family and the workers who come to help are doing the best they can. Are they there today?
That recording just showed up in my video feed. What a beautiful way they sing it. I am reminded of many years back in Art’s church (and my church back then) that a prodigal son had returned home, middle-aged, and he sang that in the service for his mother and our small congregation. So touching. And it is one that the tiny choir I sang with for the short time before Covid hit had sung. Missing that, too, with Covid.
Chas, you have kept Elvera at home with you, and that is actually a remarkable feat. She is not in a home wondering where Charlie is and why he doesn’t come get her and take her home. You likely wouldn’t have even been able to see her much in the last year, and she would have faded away. You have been doing blessed, honorable work, fulfilling your wedding vows and loving your bride well.
I second what Cheryl said but we are also not there. It is probably best to
Listen to the healthcare people who are there and know more of what is happening. It has been my experience that hospice nurses and caregivers are angels in disguise. Listen to them.
BTW, I didn’t mean to imply it’s failure when one has to put loved ones in a nursing home or send them to the hospital. I am saying that the work Chas has done the last few years has been loving and good.
Cheryl, I was thinking, also, how blessed he and Elvera were that nothing forced any kind of extended medical stay in a hospital or rehab facility (from the falls or whatnot) — with the pandemic, that could have too easily turned into a permanent and very sadly isolated situation.
Well, I’m “half” vaccinated against Covid (I go back for shot #2 on the last Sunday of February), I was impressed by how smoothly and efficiently it all went. There were hundreds and hundreds of cars, lined up initially in a single-lane queue on the street — several blocks long — just to get into the large parking lot area where the paperwork was being checked and shots being administered. But the line was continually moving and it wasn’t any time at all that I was inside, getting my shot 3 minutes earlier than my appointed time.
They then direct you to an area where you sit in your car for 15 “recovery” minutes — the time is marked with chalk on your windshield so they know when they can release you — just incase people have issues.
Then it was out, back on the freeway, and home — and for me, in time for the virtual sermon.
I so appreciate all the health workers, researchers, and others who have come together in such over-and-above efforts during this very strange and difficult season for all of us.
I went for a stroll in our woods. As I was entering the woods, the neighbour’s enormous mastiff (the dog’s headcomes close to my shoulder in height), rose up the from snow about a hundred yards away and barked at me. I told it to go home, and the neighbour, overhearing, joined in to summon the dog back to their property. I was somewhat surprised the dog would behave that way, since usually, if the neighbours’ dogs get onto our property and then encounter us, they slink back home. During my stroll, I crossed where the dog had been sitting and found the reason for its menacing barking, a half eaten wild turkey carcass.
Good sermon today on the pandemic — and how churches (and individuals) have struggled to grapple with it, with people (all coming from different perspectives and experiences) landing on various spots of what is a long and varied “spectrum.”
Grace, not judging or assuming/assigning dark or unworthy motives to others (“sheep” or fear vs. “rebels”) — all good reminders of how out of left-field this all has been for everyone. It hasn’t been easy and everyone has varied circumstances that inform their own perceptions and decisions.
I do think we’ll begin to see the situation change (for the better) by mid-year, possibly sooner, with a vaccine that will be widely available.
I want to thank everyone for their prayers and comments WRT Elvera and me.
But I have been cogitating a good bit this afternoon, because there is nothing i can do but think.
It’s a heavy subject, and too late for heavy discussion.
But I will throw this out and maybe bring it up again tomorrow. to wit:
I have been thinking a good bit about what happens when we die. Then, I remembered what Jesus said about Lazarus: This is the only place I know that the concept appears in the Bible. Jesus said, Jn. 11:26
“He that lives and believes in me shall never die,”
We pass that off often, but Jesus just said that a person who believes in Him will never die.
Heavy stuff:
The only way I can reconcile that with what I know is:
When a person trusts Jesus, he is, in fact BORN AGAIN with a new spirit that is eternal.
That is, when I trust Jesus, I am given a new life that is mine and is me. When I die physically, my spirit departs my body and goes to be with the Lord until the resurrection.
It’s heavier than i just posted.
But think about it.
I always chuckle a little when I see someone try to insult those they disagree with by calling them sheep. Someone else called humans sheep millennia ago, and it was a statement of fact.
My pastor is having a difficult time with the Covid. My friend Florence has a great nephew who is barely hanging on, in the same family as Florence’s sister who died. I want to be an ostrich and put my head in the sand. I am overwhelmed.
Yes, I once said we were all sheep and my mom was most insulted and insisted she wasn’t. The sheep were the ones who disagreed with her.
I have had problems with my laptop for some time and decided I better spring for a new one before it did not come back on. It kept overheating. It was old according to people who know. Grandkids didn’t even want, as it was too old for their games. We old people are not used to this throw away culture. I did not really want to travel the hour and spend time in the store to get it, but that was better than ending up without one. My iPad does not let me ‘like’ anything. I did have to resign into Word Press or this new computer wouldn’t either. I suppose that is what Chas would have to do so he can like things again.
I have been praying, Chas, for you and yours. Such a difficult time of life! What a blessing knowing the Lord and knowing Elvera is safe in her Lord! So glad your family is there for you.
Chas, yes, when we are born again, we enter into eternal life. Our bodies deteriorate but we are seated with Him in the heavenlies, and when our bodies dies, we know we are with Him.
Kathaleena – My kind-of-old laptop is coming to the point of needing to be replaced soon, too. Fortunately for me, I know a “computer guy” who not only fixes computers, he also sells new ones. He’ll set up a new one with whatever you want, such as Windows 10, and virus and malware protection.
As if that wasn’t good enough, he makes house calls. 🙂
This may sound silly, especially to those ladies who have dealt with this kind of stuff by themselves for years, but I am kind of proud of myself for finding out about him and doing business with him on my own. Hubby used to deal with any of that kind of thing, and I never had to worry about it. I had seen posts from this man on the town Facebook pages, and a lot of people commented and recommended him, so I kept his contact info for when I might need it. And I did, sometime last year.
He came to the house and set up a new wifi router, took the desktop computer with him to fix (and brought it back the next day), and also took away an old desktop that was unusable and had been sitting around on my desk for a few years.
I’ve been fortunate to rely on our former photo editor (now still one of our freelancers who lives about a mile from me in the same town). He and his college-son are both Mac experts, so they installed a new hard-drive on my 2013 Mac Pro laptop, it’s like new now. He said it would last another 5 years but I need to start thinking about a new one at some point.
Snow, snow, and nothing but snow, as far as the eye can see.
For the next 2days. 😦
I’m posting later tonight, sleeping in, then getting at the snow in the AM. Me and the neighbor just removed the first 4 inches to fall. On 12 more to go. 16-20 is the call. Yay.
That snowstorm is coming our way, with snow starting in the morning and going into Tuesday. The school superintendent has already called a snow day for tomorrow, so I can sleep in.
The roads shouldn’t be too bad when Nightingale drives into work before seven tomorrow, but will probably be bad when she drives home later.
Yep, middle of the night is typical for writers, or at least for this one. When I’m actively working on a book, I may get up at any time of the night. Sometimes I don’t go to bed at all till 3 a.m., sometimes I go to bed at 11:00, sleep for two hours and then get up, and sometimes I go to bed and lie awake for two hours before I give up and get up. But often I have lain in bed for 45 minutes working through an entire chapter of a book or an essay before I get up to write it before I lose it. Other times I fight and try to go back to sleep, with bits and pieces of writing going through my mind, none of them seeming important enough to get out of bed, before I give up.
In Nashville I put a notebook and pen next to my bed to stave off an occasional minor writing attack–write it down, stay in bed. But when the writing bug is really serious, nothing works except getting up and writing.
But since those particular writing sessions are also the most productive ones, as much as I dislike losing the sleep, I know it’s worth it, and I hope that sometime this year I get into that level of productivity with my writing, even if it means losing a few hours of sleep several nights in a row.
It’s still Jan. 31 here. One of our local breweries will be featured, talking on topic of outdoor dining reopening in LA, on Fox and Friends at 5:15 Monday morning if anyone’s up that early 🙂
Wandering Views 
I hope everyone else is having a good morning.
Elvera is still in bed, she can’t get her legs to work.
She has a helper. LindaS was over here for a while but has gone back home.
Carol, the helper, is giving her a s “sponge bath”. I’ve never heard of that before, but I can imagine what that is.
Me? I slept well, but am just as tired as before. It isn’t from physical activity and rest doesn’t help.
Due to circumstances now. You are the only friends I have. Besides kin.
Bro-in-law, Mel, has his own problems now and the others have died. And Lions hasn’t met for almost a year and I have forgotten most of them.
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Good morning, Chas. Praying for you and Elvera. We are here to listen when you need us.
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Since it is Saturday, I think that calls for some music. I came across this lovely rendition of the traditional Irish Swallowtail Jig, a piece which I have played and arranged myself, so I always like to find new arrangements:
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Chas, I am honored to be one of your friends, and to listen to you and pray for you in this time.
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Speaking of music, last night I attended a concert. Virtually of course. It was Second’s gift to me. She bought a ticket to a virtual concert by a Baroque ensemble, Tafelmusik. The concert was of pieces composed for performance at home, so the ensemble consisted of one violinist, one violist, one cellist, one double bassist, and oboist. The string players wore masks, while the oboist sat behind a plexiglass barrier, but their music was as beautiful as ever. The musicians talked about the pieces, and one of the composers, Johann Baptiste Vanhal, was born an indentured servant, or serf, in Bohemia (Czech Republic) who bought his freedom with his musical skill.
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Chas we love you and are honored to be considered your friend.
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Chas, assuming Elvera is in bed while they bathe her, it’s often called a “bed bath.” I had one myself when I was in the hospital recovering from surgery a few years ago.
When I was a child, we often camped, sometimes in tents but more often in a trailer. Our first trailer wasn’t “self-contained,” meaning it didn’t have a toilet or shower facilities. We had a total of three trailers over my time growing up, just one of them bought new (a Wilderness). Two had toilets, and I don’t remember which had showers. One, possibly two, had the tiniest showers imaginable. If you were hooked up to camping facilities, then you could take a shower. If you were in a tent or a trailer without a shower, or if you were in a trailer but using water from the tank rather than being hooked up to water (and needing to scrimp on water usage), then you’d take a sponge bath. (We used a washcloth but still called it a sponge bath.) I had quite a bit of practice through the years, and so I still take them when I don’t have much time to get ready or when I’m not particularly dirty but just need to freshen up a bit.
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Good morning. Hoping to go see my dad and step mom today.
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Morning. Continued prayers for you and Elvera , Chas….we are blessed to be called friend..we love you….
Up until I was in the first grade we lived in the other half of a duplex next to my Grandmother and Great grandparents. We had no indoor bathroom. Mom would give us a “spit bath”…yep..that’s what she called it…just washing down with soap and water. We only had a “real bath” on Saturday nights…that is when she filled the galvanized tub with warm water and we got to sit down 😊
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Chas – Yes, indeed, we love you and Elvera, and are blessed and privileged to be your friends. ❤
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Last week (I think it was), I wrote about having to gather some things together for when I apply for Hubby’s Social Security. The one that I thought would be hard to find, or even not around, was his W-2 for the last year he worked. (“How am I ever going to find that?!”)
After a few days (of not even bothering to look yet), it occurred to me that I would have had that when I had my/our taxes done the following tax season after his death. And I remembered where the folder of the tax stuff was filed!
Voila! W-2 form! Such a relief!
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I went to a concert last night, too, though nowhere near as wonderful as Roscuro’s.
In our case, it was a world premiere through Wheaton College of a composition about the Chicago River, written by my daughter’s roommate–a bonafide, prize-winning composer.
(He’s currently writing a piece for her called, “The Room Next Door.”
She admits to not caring much for Patrick’s work, but he does occasionally accompany her to performances at Lutheran Churches because he loves choral work.
Anyway, he’s a nice guy (with a girlfriend), so when I saw he had a free premier through Wheaton, I signed on.
After an exhausting day on several levels, I was cooking while the performance played and I didn’t realize Patrick’s piece was the one we were listening to (Don’t ask me why Mr. Cringing Music Lover couldn’t read my mind to call me back to really listen).
Anyway, as I thought about it this morning, I realized the music brought to my mind pictures of sharp straight lines veering to earth, icy and cold. I don’t like that image.
One of my favorite pieces is about another river, Smetana’s The Moldau–which starts out as a small rill tumbling around rocks in the mountains and then building into a river the size of the Danube in a triumphant ending.
I love harmonies, and the mixing of voices and sounds, rounded, rich, warm, colorful, that brings us together. (See Bach)
Patrick’s music doesn’t do that. He composes on a computerized piano–which doesn’t necessarily (though I believe it can be programmed), gives you the rich lush depth of a good piano or a cello. He prefers sharp sounds–like a high flute, rather than rounded full sounds.
I’d never thought about music that way until this morning, so it was fun to see Roscuro’s comments on her concert. I would have gone with you, Roscuro! 🙂
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I work with five Christians and yesterday they paused in the staff meeting to pray for Elvera, Chas, and the family. Peace, grace, love, and mercy.
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Michelle, I do not really like computerized instruments. Computers cannot produce the overtones that acoustic instruments do. Electric instruments still have enough acoustic components that they have the overtones, but computerized instruments have none of that. The sound is dead, because there is none of the echoes and whispers of higher and lower tones that occur when the note on a real instrument is played. I used to love as a child, playing a note on the piano with the damper pedal down, and listening to all the other strings that vibrated above and below that one note that the hammer had struck. When I was learning to play violin, my teacher taught me to play in tune by telling me to listen for the ringing overtones that would occur when I played certain notes.
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And I forgot to mention…I love love love the header photo….anytime I see sweet little birdies I smile 😊
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A month from now, we’ll be in March.
In Nashville I had a roommate who was a musician. She sang and she played the piano, and she taught both voice and piano. And she walked dogs and babysat, and did whatever she could to earn money, but none of it was enough to pay back loans on a master’s degree in a field with little possibility of success.
Anyway, she told me she was going to get me a ticket sometime when she was singing, and one day she did. She left before I did, since she was one of the performers. I got the information off the ticket and googled how to get to the location. I wrote the directions down and dressed up, including shoes I couldn’t readily walk in. I was driving in a part of town that wasn’t familiar, and it took longer to get there than I expected, but I was still OK on time. Then I parked in a parking garage (free for the first half hour, $8 or $10 or something like that after the first half hour). I walked to the location a couple of blocks away, and it was clearly not where anything was happening that evening. No people anywhere. I finally found a sign explaining that it was under construction this season, and that concerts were in such and such a location (NOT matching what my ticket said). I asked some people where that other location was, and was told it was two miles or so that way. No way could I walk that far, and back, in my shoes, by this time I would be late and had no idea where I would park, and as I recall I couldn’t drive that way because of construction or one-way streets or something. My health was also not very good in that season.
Finally, discouraged, I returned to my car. As I drove out of the parking garage, my time came up at 32 minutes or 34 minutes or something like that–barely beyond the free half hour and now I’d have to pay full price for a concert I hadn’t been able to attend. The garage attendant wasn’t sympathetic. I told him I was barely into the “extra” time and was parked in the wrong location; we already had to eat the price of the ticket unless my roommate could get it refunded, could I please just pay two or three dollars and call it good? He kept saying no, I owed the whole amount, just as though I were there for the full evening. I finally started to cry; I wasn’t putting on a performance, I was just frustrated. I wasn’t earning very much money, I was missing an event I wanted to attend and would disappoint my roommate when she found out I hadn’t made it, and paying a lot of money to park at the wrong location wasn’t what I wanted to do at that moment. When I started to cry, I said, “I’m asking for mercy here,” and he hit the button and let me through. I think he was disgusted with me. Thing is, I hadn’t even noticed how the price structure worked, that after just half an hour I had to pay the entire fee and not, say, $2 for the first half hour. If I had, I would have hurried to get back within the half hour; as it was, I barely missed it. But I never did get to hear my roommate sing, because she moved out soon after that and soon after that, my husband and I began courting.
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From The Heidelberg catechism, this one seemed good for today.
Q: What is thy only comfort in life and in death?
A: That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me, that without the will of my Father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him.
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Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes.
The house has been full of people. Mostly family rearranging stuff so Elvera can stay in bed and be treated and I can sleep with her. That takes some moving furniture around and some out.
But we have always slept tangled up together and don’t want to change that.
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I’m with you, Roscuro. Love acoustic instruments. The rest . . . even electric, nah.
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Chas, your family loves you both. Neat to hear about them stepping up even more. I look forward to meeting them.
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Computers cannot produce the overtones that acoustic instruments do.
I find the same true with digitally recorded music over the older analog. I hooked up a record player to the computer to transfer some of my old LPs to mp3. I can hear the difference in the older music as it has better stereo quality than the newer digital versions. And the music sounds better, even with the occasional scratchiness of a 40 year old LP.
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Michelle, electric has grown on me for getting effects that add to the timbre combinations in an ensemble. Alone I don’t care for them, but electric guitars especially, which are quite acoustic when their frames are made of wood, can add something to an orchestral ensemble.
Speaking of acoustic effects and overtones, the use of overtones singing in traditional music can be absolutely unearthly sounding. I recently came across this Mongolian traditional performer, the traditional throat singing with overtones comes at the end of the song:
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Peter, yes there is a richness to LP recordings that digital recordings loses. That is the reason I have kept the 22 volume (each volume has 3-4 LPs) set of classical recordings I inherited from my music teacher. My father still has a functioning stereo system hooked up to his record player, so every once in a while he or I play our records – he has a few classical recording but most are of his favorite artists from his youth: Chet Atkins, Gordon Lightfoot, The Tijuana Brass, The Moody Blues, etc.
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As I often say, LP recordings are an actual physical record of sound, while digital recordings are only a copy built from electronic codes. It is a bit like photographs, film photographs are a physical record of the impression of light waves, digital photographs are only an electronic copy. I have had the privilege of seeing some of the greatest film photograph portraits ever taken, and there is a three dimensional quality to them that digital copies can never reproduce. I would say the sound of an LP as a similar three dimensional quality – you can hear layers that are not audible in digital copies.
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Roscuro, the 12:06–lovely, and what a beautiful instrument! I like the horse head on it.
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Okay, now, that was really weird. I had no idea the human anatomy could produce such a sound.
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So I went and listened to more….
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Hello all.
Chas, you and Elvera are in my prayers and deeply loved.
Kim, I pray you and Mr. P make full recovery from covid with no lingering ill effects. RKessler, I am sorry to hear you contracted the disease as well. My prayer for you is the same.
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Throat singing, or khoomei, exists in Mongolia and Tuva (a region of southern Siberia that borders Monglia). It began among nomadic herdsmen on the steppes of Central Asia to imitate the sounds of nature around them. The people of the Arctic regions also have throat singing traditions – the Inuit also use throat singing to imitate natural sounds around them, only in their case, it is a friendly competition in which two people – traditionally women – stand face to face and echo each other’s throat singing. The competition ends when one person breaks down – they have a keen sense of laughter. One wonders if the places it exists are evidence of migratory patterns of people groups.
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There is nothing like the joy of hearing live acoustic music. I have particularly been enjoying hearing one of our studio’s violin teachers working with one of his students on a Bach violin concerto. Awesome to pass through the hallway and go past his studio door, even while it’s closed, and hear the student playing the piece.
I am finding much joy both in working at the studio — now up to three days a week since beginning of January — and at home with my students here. Next week I have three new students starting and another one expanding from 30 minutes a week to 45.
Very blessed to have the 30 students I have.
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Now, i remember, I am familiar with this. Just forgot. I remember somebody, (probably you, Roscuro) posted the Inuit women singing at/with each other.
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I think I did, when I was posting music from each province and territory for Canada’s 150th.
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Here’s something sweet most will agree on:
https://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=129EFJNU&utm_medium=
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That is definitely most sweet Michelle! Thanks for sharing that one ♥️
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Chas, I cherish your friendship and feel very blessed that Jo arranged for Art and me to get to visit with you and Elvera. I am glad to know you two are being well cared for at this special time in your lives. All of us on the blog would be doing more to show our love if we lived near and did not have the Covid restrictions. You are able to share joys and sorrows here 24/7 knowing if everyone happens to be asleep when you post it will only be a few hours before someone will read and respond to what you wrote.
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Chas,
I took a sponge bath last night. I go to Downey, CA for my Kaiser doctors. It is a 2 day trip, each way. I saw a wound care nurse and an opthomologist. I have had ugly lower legs for about 30 years. Occasionally they become open wounds. I had an open wound last month when I went in. The wound care nurse wrapped my legs with two stretchy bandages and then covered them with knee high nylon stockings. They are supposed to stay on for 2 weeks And then get them changed. This means that I don’t get to shower of bathe unless I cover them to keep water off them.
In effect, this means I use a wash cloth with soap i.e. a sponge bath!
We are sure that you have had many friends. The cares of life and the Covid lock down have separated many. Even here on Wandering Views we don’t often mention our cares of life. Did I let anyone here know that my wife and I spent 14 days in quarantine? Of seven people in our house, 6 came down with Covid, 3 were tested and came back positive. 3 were just sick with it and 1, me, didn’t get much of anything. I probably got the “Rona” but it didn’t do much to me.
I don’t know about others, but I always look for your first post of the day. We look for your comments and God inspired wisdom. You don’t try to brow beat us, you just say what should be obvious to anyone with a little wisdom and smarts. We look forward to you everyday!
Go with God. I have to stop now, those tears of sorrow for my friend sting.
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Thanks Bob, et. al.
I can’t use “Like” because when I click “like”, I get directed to a page where I have to sign in, etc. I never get past that, so I don’t go further to “like” anything.
But thanks everyone.
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You’re in all our hearts and prayers Chas. I saw your first post — it was the only one there — when I woke up early this morning so I’ve been praying off and on today. We love you. And we love Elvera.
You know I have a distinct mental picture of you two crossing paths in that church balcony, a story you’ve told often. “The moment,” God ordained indeed.
Ditto to all the other comments here today, I’m late the conversation.
Beautiful music, I loved the “jig.”
And I loved the Heidelberg Catechism (Q1), it’s one we frequently recite in church.
Cheryl (re your story of getting to the concert late), crying sometimes is quite effective 🙂 One of our young female reporters a long time ago said she got out of a traffic citation that way.
But regarding music — A few years ago I was tooling Carol around on a Good Friday in Hollywood. After a meal at the Cheesecake Factory at The Grove, we still had some more time to kill before the church service at Hollywood Presbyterian was to begin and she really wanted to stop at Ameba Music, an iconic newer store on Sunset that I’d not had occasion to visit (in my day we had Tower Records on the same stretch that I was very familiar with in my younger years).
I was amazed by this very contemporary store (this was maybe in 2015-16?) that was filled with old-school LPs (it also looked and felt like places from the ’70s, graffiti on all the walls). I spent some time talking to one of the clerks about “why” LPs (again)? Fascinating to me, I wasn’t aware of the trend back to LPs due to the better sound qualities.
I grew up with LPs and felt they had some drawbacks, including the scratchiness and skipping qualities, along with being awkward to store. I was happy to move on, through the decades, to other forms of easier, longer-lasting and cheaper recordings. I obviously don’t have a musician’s ear when it comes to some of those issues, but admire those who do and can appreciate the differences.
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Cheryl- The horse head on the Mongolian instrument is significant since horses are important in Mongolia. Having a Mongolian sister-in-law helps to know these things. A traditional blessing there is to give someone a mug of fresh horse milk.
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I remember the skips on the records due to a scratch here and there. We played this one James Taylor album over and over and over when first married. When we hear that song come on while listening to Pandora we look at each other and say “where’s the skip”?!! 😂
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Funny, Nancyjill.
My neighbor, the 35-year-old teenager who now buys and re-sells used record albums to make some extra money, had one record playing in the garage the other day that got stuck and repeated the line over and over again (I guess he wasn’t close enough to nudge it forward). Brought back memories.
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Roscuro- I.ve been listening to some of the artists other music. Hauntingly beautiful. I never realized a human could produce two different notes at the same time.
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Peter, there are Western performers who can do overtone singing but it is more of a novelty act, not something incorporated into most compositions with human voice. Overtone singing because it involves using the the throat as the sound column, is wordless, and Western music overwhelmingly uses singing to conveys words, rather than as a musical instrument.
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Sometimes a new beginning is a good time to make some changes. When my husband and I were planning to move, I pointed out that we were empty nesters now and not trying to work around the schedule of kids who were in school or working, so after the move we could start eating our main meal in the middle of the day rather than in the evening. (He’d mentioned that as something he’d like to try.) We made the change with the move, and it has worked well. Recently I pointed out that our attempt to read a passage of Scripture together in the morning after breakfast rarely worked because we rarely eat breakfast at the same time, yet we nearly always eat lunch/dinner together, and reading after lunch could work better for us. We’ve been doing that this week, and it has indeed worked better.
As last year was finishing up, I got to Revelation in my reading of the New Testament. By reading half the book each of the last two days of the year, I wrapped up the book and the year at the same time, and decided to go ahead and try to read all the way through this year, but without following a written plan. Rather, I read a few chapters and try to stop when one theme ends and a new one is beginning. I have read all the way through in a year several times, using various plans, but this time I’m just using a marker. But this is what I’m doing different: I’ve always had a hard time settling in to a specific time of day to read the Word. “First thing in the morning” doesn’t work for me, since I’m sleepy, my vocabulary hasn’t fully entered my brain, and often my eyes are blurry. But “last thing at night” often doesn’t work, either, since the day gets away from me. So it has often ended up being a bit erratic, whatever time of day I think of it and am not in the middle of something. This year I decided to try a different plan: First thing in the morning I drink a glass of juice or eat a piece of fruit and then I sit down and read a few chapters. Often I end up reading more later in the day, too, but having a specific setting is useful when setting habits. A few days I have gone out for a walk as soon as I have gotten up and dressed, because there is frost or fog out, and those don’t linger. But on those mornings, I’m conscious that I’m beginning the day by reading the second book of God (creation), but as soon as I enter the house I’m ready to go to the first Book. At any rate, so far it has worked for me, and since I thought something like that might help someone else with the same dilemma, I thought it worth mentioning.
I also decided I was tired of having unproductive Mondays in which I felt guilty for not getting much editing done, and decided Monday is just going to be a non-editing day. If there is housework I didn’t get to on Saturday, I can do it. I can make cards, take a long walk, spend extra time cooking a meal that will give us several days of leftovers, send emails, etc. And with that change, I have redeemed Monday as a productive day of the week instead of a day of feeling guilty because I’m not accomplishing much.
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Chas, your simple good nights to me have meant so much to me over the years as I live here all alone. I, with Janice and Art, was so glad to get to meet you and your sweetie and even see your home. I have saved some of your stories from on here to savor.
I also can’t like on here, but I would.
Chas, I also share your view of our country right now and am grieving for it. It is an even greater grief to me to see that my children are going along. But, knowing that you see it as I do is a great comfort.
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Thanks for those ideas, Cheryl, I always struggle with a pattern for Scripture reading. I, too, am not very with it in the mornings and I work most days, “with it” or not, haha.
Talked to my one cousin today, she’s set to get her vaccine on Thursday, our other cousin was “shot” with his 2nd followup vaccine already last week (his MD facilitated that as he’s been in the middle of getting several pre-cancerous skin spots removed).
I need to drop off an Amazon return at UPS today and I think I’ll also grab a car ride around that. It’s probably also time to get gas, it’s finally below half a tank (after probably 2 months since the last fill-up?).
I threw in a load of laundry and have some dishes to put away. I should do more housework, but don’t think I’ll get to it today.
Our sermon tomorrow is on responding to a pandemic, very topical. Our church isn’t alone struggling through the various responses and opinions. I’ve appreciated how our church leaders, while disagreeing even among themselves somewhat, have continually encouraged us to try to accept and understand the convictions of those brothers and sisters who see things differently — and never to assign “dark” motives to those who disagree or have other convictions that we do.
Good principle to apply in politics and other issues, as well.
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Something else to get off my chest.
I am VERY uninterested in music at church. They sing the songs on “Christian Radio.” I don’t know them. I don’t like them. I won’t listen to the radio. I find them boring!! They have little to no harmony. They are uninteresting. At church, they are put up on a screen, there is no written music.
Two Sundays ago, it all came together for me; I had that flash of light, understanding dawned! I have never been able to understand the words of pop music. I don’t and never have been able to know what the singers were saying. If I try to listen to “Christian Radio” I don’t understand what is said on those songs either. They do nothing for me.
Is it because I am not musical enough? No, I was Second Chair Tuba in the All Southern California Honor Band (from Bakersfield to the Mexican border.) in 1965. I am musical enough, I just don’t know what most singers are saying.
I like harmonies and rhythm, not words. These things are sad in most “Church music” of the modern church. I would rather walk in after the music.
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Bob, at our church in Hendersonville, NC, we attended an early service that catered to the elderly. That is, they sang songs that had melody and we old folks liked to sing. At the early service (when they had it. we haven’t been inside for a year now.) It was the same kind of music. Not singable.
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That was me, I clicked too soon.
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That was me. I hit the “send” button too soon.
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My daughter helped me. I was at her house and a song came on that moved me. I went into the kitchen where it was playing and just stood there. After it was over she told me that it was on pandora and that I had it on my iphone. I knew nothing. So she set up pandora for me with the hymns that I like. And it will come on on my car radio if I set it up. In January I quit listening to talk radio, knowing that I just couldn’t, things were getting too bad. So I learned how to set up pandora and listened to hymns everywhere that I went.
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Pandora is great, I listen to that in my car also — and sometimes I’ll just listen to my own songs I’ve saved through the years, religious and secular, through my phone which plays through the bluetooth radio also.
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All the people are gone now. Elvera is in bed. I was just sitting here thinking of nothing at all, then it suddenly occurred to me that some idiots were talking about going back to the moon.
We have been there. Nothing there. I can’t think of a single reason that we might want to go back to the moon.
Nor Mars.
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Chas, we’ve already been to the Grand Canyon too.
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I suspect people are trying, desperately, to unify the country around something exciting, technological, and new. They’re also still looking for life outside of earth.
One of my husband’s college roommates went to work all those years ago to “dream up” new space ideas. I should google to find out what happened to him.
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Michelle, I also suspect that some people would really, really love to go to the moon themselves. Some may have a “tourist” interest, some a scientific one, some something else. Lots and lots of people have been to Yellowstone, but I never have, and I’d like to go there myself someday.
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fifty seven
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I have been holding, cuddling, feeding, changing and rocking twin boys for the past week. Wow, two babies are a lot of work (as Mumsee knows). Several times I’ve had them for a few hours all by myself while their mommy sleeps. It’s so fun to be a grandma!
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Congratulations, Kare!!
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They are a lot of work, but such a wonderful opportunity! Enjoy, Kare!
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How sweet Kare…I know you cherish these moments… ♥️ there’s just nothing sweeter….
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When you go to Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, you don’t have to carry your own air. And you can turn around without help.
Nothing is at risk.
You can spend several million on a trip to the moon.
When you get there, you find there is nothing there.
And getting home again is a real task. You don’t just turn around.
I used to give briefings on Lunar mapping. At the end, I show a picture of the astronaut standing beside his capsule.
All dressed up in his Lunar garb. I say, “Astronaut (forgot who) in his Lunar bikini.”
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Good morning everyone.
Elvera is still stretched out in bed. Not doing well at all.
Prayers appreciated. She hurts occasionally, but not constantly. And that’s something.
Not much, but something.
It’s freezing rain and our church is having the entire service on-line today. We’ll see how that works. But it makes sense not to get out in this.
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Good morning, Chas. Good evening, Jo.
G’day to everyone else.
Glad to know that Elvera is not in too much pain, Chas. That is a big deal for her and for all of us. That is part of taking good care of her each moment. You are, to me, the best example of a loving husband that I have ever known in my life. You are doing the most, even if it seems little to you, for your wife that is humanly possible. If you feel weak, God steps in to be your strength. Having God in the equation makes all the difference. Praying for you my Brother and Friend in Christ.
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I was awakened by a tap on my door. The door then opened, and Sixth entered. “It’s my birthday,” he said. “So you have to get up and get some cake.” I explained cake is not generally consumed in the morning.
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I have had cake for breakfast a time or two. 🙂
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Kare – my MIL found a t-shirt that said “If I’d known how much fun grandchildren are, I would’ve had them first.” Youngest SIL was 15 at the time and didn’t appreciate that one.
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We always have birthday cake for breakfast. Well, not every day. But every day we have a birthday and the day or two after.
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I didn’t sleep well last night. I woke up at 2:00 and I had an idea on how to improve a short story I wrote 20 years ago that would not go away. I finally got up and scribbled the idea down, after 3:00, then lay down on the couch. Finally got back to sleep around 5 AM.
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Good morning, all, by the way.
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This world is not my home,
I’m only passing thru
My treasue’s all laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angel’s beckon me
to Heaven’s open door.
And I can’t feel at home
In this world anymore.
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Amen.
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Chas is it possible to put Elvera in a hospital bed? It would be easier on her and possibly you could curl up beside her. I did that when BG was in the hospital. Then it would be easier to get her up to sit in a chair. You don’t
Want her being lifted or tugged and certainly don’t want bedsores or anything.
Possibly Roscuro has some suggestions on how to make everyone more comfortable.
Hugs and love to you both.
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Kim. We’ve done that after a fashion.
We have a hospital bed, but it is so high that I’m reluctant to transfer her to it. .
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The modern hospital bed can be lowered close to the floor. But, yes, a hospital bed has its own risks. Even with the bed rails up, supervision is needed to make sure the occupant doesn’t try to climb over the rails, as that is a much worse fall than just sliding off the bed. Also, for someone who has slept their whole life in one bed, changing beds can be very disorienting. All in all it may be best for Elvera to be where she is. And I am sure Chas, that your family and the workers who come to help are doing the best they can. Are they there today?
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Phos. We moved from Hendersonville to Greensboro to be close to Chuck & family. They are lots of help.
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That recording just showed up in my video feed. What a beautiful way they sing it. I am reminded of many years back in Art’s church (and my church back then) that a prodigal son had returned home, middle-aged, and he sang that in the service for his mother and our small congregation. So touching. And it is one that the tiny choir I sang with for the short time before Covid hit had sung. Missing that, too, with Covid.
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Chas, you have kept Elvera at home with you, and that is actually a remarkable feat. She is not in a home wondering where Charlie is and why he doesn’t come get her and take her home. You likely wouldn’t have even been able to see her much in the last year, and she would have faded away. You have been doing blessed, honorable work, fulfilling your wedding vows and loving your bride well.
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I second what Cheryl said but we are also not there. It is probably best to
Listen to the healthcare people who are there and know more of what is happening. It has been my experience that hospice nurses and caregivers are angels in disguise. Listen to them.
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BTW, I didn’t mean to imply it’s failure when one has to put loved ones in a nursing home or send them to the hospital. I am saying that the work Chas has done the last few years has been loving and good.
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Cheryl, I was thinking, also, how blessed he and Elvera were that nothing forced any kind of extended medical stay in a hospital or rehab facility (from the falls or whatnot) — with the pandemic, that could have too easily turned into a permanent and very sadly isolated situation.
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Welcome to the writer’s life, Peter.
https://www.michelleule.com/2020/05/12/writing-in-the-middle-of-the-night/
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Well, I’m “half” vaccinated against Covid (I go back for shot #2 on the last Sunday of February), I was impressed by how smoothly and efficiently it all went. There were hundreds and hundreds of cars, lined up initially in a single-lane queue on the street — several blocks long — just to get into the large parking lot area where the paperwork was being checked and shots being administered. But the line was continually moving and it wasn’t any time at all that I was inside, getting my shot 3 minutes earlier than my appointed time.
They then direct you to an area where you sit in your car for 15 “recovery” minutes — the time is marked with chalk on your windshield so they know when they can release you — just incase people have issues.
Then it was out, back on the freeway, and home — and for me, in time for the virtual sermon.
I so appreciate all the health workers, researchers, and others who have come together in such over-and-above efforts during this very strange and difficult season for all of us.
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Just remember, DJ, it is only ninety five percent with the second dose. Still leaves five percent.
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I can live with that mumsee. lol
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I went for a stroll in our woods. As I was entering the woods, the neighbour’s enormous mastiff (the dog’s headcomes close to my shoulder in height), rose up the from snow about a hundred yards away and barked at me. I told it to go home, and the neighbour, overhearing, joined in to summon the dog back to their property. I was somewhat surprised the dog would behave that way, since usually, if the neighbours’ dogs get onto our property and then encounter us, they slink back home. During my stroll, I crossed where the dog had been sitting and found the reason for its menacing barking, a half eaten wild turkey carcass.
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Good sermon today on the pandemic — and how churches (and individuals) have struggled to grapple with it, with people (all coming from different perspectives and experiences) landing on various spots of what is a long and varied “spectrum.”
Grace, not judging or assuming/assigning dark or unworthy motives to others (“sheep” or fear vs. “rebels”) — all good reminders of how out of left-field this all has been for everyone. It hasn’t been easy and everyone has varied circumstances that inform their own perceptions and decisions.
I do think we’ll begin to see the situation change (for the better) by mid-year, possibly sooner, with a vaccine that will be widely available.
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I want to thank everyone for their prayers and comments WRT Elvera and me.
But I have been cogitating a good bit this afternoon, because there is nothing i can do but think.
It’s a heavy subject, and too late for heavy discussion.
But I will throw this out and maybe bring it up again tomorrow. to wit:
I have been thinking a good bit about what happens when we die. Then, I remembered what Jesus said about Lazarus: This is the only place I know that the concept appears in the Bible. Jesus said, Jn. 11:26
“He that lives and believes in me shall never die,”
We pass that off often, but Jesus just said that a person who believes in Him will never die.
Heavy stuff:
The only way I can reconcile that with what I know is:
When a person trusts Jesus, he is, in fact BORN AGAIN with a new spirit that is eternal.
That is, when I trust Jesus, I am given a new life that is mine and is me. When I die physically, my spirit departs my body and goes to be with the Lord until the resurrection.
It’s heavier than i just posted.
But think about it.
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amen
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I always chuckle a little when I see someone try to insult those they disagree with by calling them sheep. Someone else called humans sheep millennia ago, and it was a statement of fact.
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I think “sheeple” is the current term. lol Or “mask nazis” if people really want to lay it on thick.
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And the verse before the one Chas quoted:
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall live.'” John 11:25
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My pastor is having a difficult time with the Covid. My friend Florence has a great nephew who is barely hanging on, in the same family as Florence’s sister who died. I want to be an ostrich and put my head in the sand. I am overwhelmed.
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Yes, I once said we were all sheep and my mom was most insulted and insisted she wasn’t. The sheep were the ones who disagreed with her.
I have had problems with my laptop for some time and decided I better spring for a new one before it did not come back on. It kept overheating. It was old according to people who know. Grandkids didn’t even want, as it was too old for their games. We old people are not used to this throw away culture. I did not really want to travel the hour and spend time in the store to get it, but that was better than ending up without one. My iPad does not let me ‘like’ anything. I did have to resign into Word Press or this new computer wouldn’t either. I suppose that is what Chas would have to do so he can like things again.
I have been praying, Chas, for you and yours. Such a difficult time of life! What a blessing knowing the Lord and knowing Elvera is safe in her Lord! So glad your family is there for you.
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Chas, yes, when we are born again, we enter into eternal life. Our bodies deteriorate but we are seated with Him in the heavenlies, and when our bodies dies, we know we are with Him.
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Kathaleena – My kind-of-old laptop is coming to the point of needing to be replaced soon, too. Fortunately for me, I know a “computer guy” who not only fixes computers, he also sells new ones. He’ll set up a new one with whatever you want, such as Windows 10, and virus and malware protection.
As if that wasn’t good enough, he makes house calls. 🙂
This may sound silly, especially to those ladies who have dealt with this kind of stuff by themselves for years, but I am kind of proud of myself for finding out about him and doing business with him on my own. Hubby used to deal with any of that kind of thing, and I never had to worry about it. I had seen posts from this man on the town Facebook pages, and a lot of people commented and recommended him, so I kept his contact info for when I might need it. And I did, sometime last year.
He came to the house and set up a new wifi router, took the desktop computer with him to fix (and brought it back the next day), and also took away an old desktop that was unusable and had been sitting around on my desk for a few years.
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I’ve been fortunate to rely on our former photo editor (now still one of our freelancers who lives about a mile from me in the same town). He and his college-son are both Mac experts, so they installed a new hard-drive on my 2013 Mac Pro laptop, it’s like new now. He said it would last another 5 years but I need to start thinking about a new one at some point.
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*new
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I guess computer ‘years’ are like dog ‘years.’
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Janice, prayed for you and for them.
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Now that 100 is out of the way…..
Snow, snow, and nothing but snow, as far as the eye can see.
For the next 2days. 😦
I’m posting later tonight, sleeping in, then getting at the snow in the AM. Me and the neighbor just removed the first 4 inches to fall. On 12 more to go. 16-20 is the call. Yay.
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I saw both the port and snowy mountains at once, driving by the harbor today. Beautiful.
We have container ships anchored all over outside the breakwater, 100 altogether, including inside/outside the port berths, proper.
Most of the items coming in these days are pandemic-related — home exercise and office supplies a big portion of it.
Otherwise, it’s sunny and in the 60s here for the next few days.
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I think the snow hitting east right now is the system we had a couple days ago, traveling east
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That snowstorm is coming our way, with snow starting in the morning and going into Tuesday. The school superintendent has already called a snow day for tomorrow, so I can sleep in.
The roads shouldn’t be too bad when Nightingale drives into work before seven tomorrow, but will probably be bad when she drives home later.
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Dj, I took pictures of all of those ships from my plane as I was leaving LA. That is alot of ships.
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Yep, middle of the night is typical for writers, or at least for this one. When I’m actively working on a book, I may get up at any time of the night. Sometimes I don’t go to bed at all till 3 a.m., sometimes I go to bed at 11:00, sleep for two hours and then get up, and sometimes I go to bed and lie awake for two hours before I give up and get up. But often I have lain in bed for 45 minutes working through an entire chapter of a book or an essay before I get up to write it before I lose it. Other times I fight and try to go back to sleep, with bits and pieces of writing going through my mind, none of them seeming important enough to get out of bed, before I give up.
In Nashville I put a notebook and pen next to my bed to stave off an occasional minor writing attack–write it down, stay in bed. But when the writing bug is really serious, nothing works except getting up and writing.
But since those particular writing sessions are also the most productive ones, as much as I dislike losing the sleep, I know it’s worth it, and I hope that sometime this year I get into that level of productivity with my writing, even if it means losing a few hours of sleep several nights in a row.
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Jo, email that to me if you want dlittlejohn@scng.com
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Happy February! My husband turned over the calendar several hours ago.
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I sent you three, dj. Hope you get them.
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Got ’em thanks!
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It’s still Jan. 31 here. One of our local breweries will be featured, talking on topic of outdoor dining reopening in LA, on Fox and Friends at 5:15 Monday morning if anyone’s up that early 🙂
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