Good morning, Wanderers! Thankful that we did not lose power overnight. We continue under threat of power loss as our winds can cause the icy branches to break today.
I had a rabbit’s foot when I was a teen. It was on a keychain, and it was hung on my purse. It must have been the style to have one, since it wouldn’t have been for any luck. What a strange style when I think about it now.
I recently finished a couple of books that were quite interesting. One was Try Yingst’s account of the Oct. attack in Isreal, “Black Saturday.” The other was, “Covert Cows & Chick-Fil-A” by Steve Robinson. That one talks about his time in promoting Chick-Fil-A. It would be especially interesting for anyone having or wanting a business, but it was enlightening as to how that business was brought from one restaurant to many.
Hey AJ, a couple of days ago I asked what email address you’re using now. Several of them come up when I type your name into my email account, and I tried two and one was rejected and the other told me the mailbox was full.
I had one, it was on a chain, too — maybe in middle school years?
So … were those *really* rabbit feet???! Now I’m kind of creeped out by that.
Long day, had to work a Saturday shift & do a story on all the political fallout and crossfire going on now due to the fires. Turned out long but got some good people to talk to.
It’s been a very busy and hectic week for all of us, exhausting. And more red flag warnings for winds coming by Monday, we’re told.
I remember thinking the rabbit’s foot keychain was very neat back in the day, but I found when I thought about it now it seemed a bit creepy. I read a few things about them and they were considered amulets by some, like a lucky charm. I also saw one reference to witches. It reminded me of how easily we let such things slip into the lives of the young, just going along with the current fads without really checking into the background.
We still have power, but many people are without still.
I seem to have a minor cold with sneezes and sniffles. Miss Bosley had sneezing when we picked her up from boarding. I may have caught it from her. I did catch a sneezing illness from a cat when I was young. I never in my life have ever sneezed as much as I did with that.
I just took Mucinex. I bought a large box at Sam’s and shared half of it with our son.
Yeah, thinking about it now, the fact that it was a real rabbit’s foot is disturbing. How many rabbits did they have to kill just to get their feet? 😦
And I do remember the term “lucky rabbit’s foot”, although we didn’t take it seriously.
Another thing I remember from my childhood was that you were supposed to say “Rabbit” the very first thing when you woke up on the first day of a new month, for good luck. Again, even though we might try to remember to do that, we didn’t take it seriously.
Pretty certain they were not killed for their feet. More that the feet were the icing on the cake. I saw some but never had one. I thought it very odd to carry around a dead rabbit’s foot.
We silly pre-teen girls just thought they were pretty, many were died unique colors. But no, we never thought they seriously brought “good luck” or whatever they were supposed to bring.
Now I can’t get the image out of my head of rabbits’ feet decorating the top of a cake …
And we thought it was strange that some women wore a fur, including the head with beady eyes around their shoulders. At least one of my grandmothers did. I am sure her son’s trapped a mink and made it for her. I wonder if someone still has it?
People did and do eat rabbit. I wonder if they were imported from a country that did that? I have eaten it, but not since I was a child. We raised rabbits for a while, but mostly just for fun.
I remember they were dyed. I think mine was pink, if I remember correctly.
I don’t think I had my own rabbit’s foot keychain, but got to hold and admire the ones that friends had. I mostly remember how soft they were, exactly like Miss Bosley’s paws.
They are still available on Amazon, real and fake ones.
I do remember all the furs with the heads and little paws attached. Once when I visited the large Presbyterian church near us (it recently shut down), I was amazed that almost every woman seemed to have a fur wrapped around her shoulders. It was as if they all had to wear a little beast to church. I am sure I wore a look of surprise or shock at the sight.
Not sure if I tried that one, Peter, so I just did. Thank you.
Re the rabbit’s feet: I remember seeing them, and being allowed to stroke one, but my mom had said that people had them for good luck, and so they never interested me.
I also wasn’t allowed to make a totem pole when my class made them in art class as though they were simply a cute thing that American Indians made. Mom explained they had religious significance, and I definitely wasn’t interested after that, though I think that just left me with drawing paper or something ordinary while the class did something more fun. I would think there might be a way for a teacher to say something like, “Would you just like to make a sculpture of an animal, not a totem pole?” But it’s also possible she tried something like that and I was afraid she was offering a compromise with worshiping the devil and I refused, I don’t know.
Michelle writes (in a novel, but true) of a missionary in Alaska who used a totem pole to share the gospel. Drum ceremonies etc. are in the schools although Christian ceremonies are not allowed. There are so many things that Christians do not realize are against the God of the bible.
It is a huge discussion, however. Paul was not concerned with those eating meat dedicated to false gods (demons) unless it was stressed and would hurt someone’s faith. Then there was the man who turned to believe in God but asked that when he entered a false god’s domain escorting his king to worship that god, that he himself would be forgiven.
The bottom line is always our hearts, which God knows. I do wonder if any of the students (or the teacher) was caused to look a little deeper into totem poles?
Sometimes, I would use the expression that something was or wasn’t “in the cards.” I took it as referring to a hand of cards in a card game. Then one day, it occurred to me that the expression is probably referring to tarot cards. Stopped saying that.
Kizzie, I just did a quick google search, and it looks like you’re right. I saw a similar assertion in two answers (I didn’t look farther). This is one of them. (BTW, I didn’t include “tarot” in my search, but simply asked what does “in the cards” mean.)
“The idiom in the cards or on the cards traces its roots to the ancient divination practice of cartomancy, where fortunes were foretold using cards, such as tarot cards. In this tradition, if an event or outcome was said to be in the cards, it was predicted based on the arrangement and interpretation of the cards.”
Another day for fires here, though it was good to see firefighters were beginning to get more of a handle on some of the fires last night. More winds expected Monday-Tuesday, but not as strong as last week.
The largest fire, Palisades, was making runs yesterday toward the San Fernando Valley/Brentwood, etc. But that appears to be held back for now.
It feels surreal out here right now, even for those of us not directly in the circle of fire (but are close enough to see and feel the effects not so very far away). The insurance impacts will be felt by all of us as companies already had been leaving the state & hiking rates.
There will be much discussion and debate about things that went wrong (beyond what was a perfect storm of weather conditions) and that will be appropriate. For now, everyone’s just trying to make it through the immediate disaster.
Rabbit feet — they were more of a (short-lived) mini-fad among young pre-teen girls when I was growing up, I don’t really remember anyone thinking they actually would bring “good luck.” They were sold at corner drug stores (for not much money), and they were soft and pretty. They came and went in ‘popularity’ — quickly as I recall. 🙂
Appreciated Kathaleena’s mention @9:05 of Paul’s approach in evangelizing amid some of the false beliefs in his day.
While our own culture once embraced Christian practices and beliefs somewhat widely, a positive environment in our view — (but whether the actual faith was behind it or not) — we’re no longer in that environment. And I wonder if we had a false illusion of being in a (truly) “Christian culture” in the past? Perhaps God uses difficult cultural environments to better “ground” believers.
Christians represent something contrary in most secular cultures. It’s a challenge but also a reminder to stay rooted in the faith, not the “culture” or politics around us at any given time.
Up here fire insurance is dropped willy-nilly and extremely expensive. We discussed at dinner what will happen now. Maybe no insurance sold in the state?
Then what happens?
When I walk around my neighborhood and see all the real estate signs, I wonder if it’s because their insurance was dropped. 😦
In hindsight, I’m not sure I would have written that totem pole into the story. Yes, I believe it was redeemed by being the Christmas story (Mary, Joseph, Jesus on the pole), but a totem pole does have a religious element for the Native Americans.
(Other than the totem pole, this is my favorite novella, The Gold Rush Christmas, because it included the true story of all the prostitutes in Skagway getting on a boat back to the mainland after hearing a gospel presentation on Mary Magdelene!)
I marveled this morning that a week ago my nephew’s family went to church and got ready to return to school after Christmas break. Two mornings later their church, school, and home burned to the ground.
Today, they’re 90 miles away, renting a new home, and the kids start a new school tomorrow.
And, of course, they’ve entered the nightmare zone of insurance and rebuilding.
DJ– in Santa Monica, rents are hitting $30K and up A MONTH.
There’s a story for you.
I know you live don’t live on that side of the hill, but how are the sunsets?
I will check on the sunset tonight, working from home and not really going much of anywhere this past week, just walking Abby, I’ve been isolated. Will mention the rents on our staff call tomorrow.
The smell of smoke has largely dissipated here though we’re told the air still isn’t very good to breathe. My house is old and drafty so what’s outside easily comes inside. Somewhere I had one of those space-alien looking air filter masks they provided all of us with (on staff), not sure if I still have it but would probably scare people if I wore it out.
I’d be glad to cut down the large trees right next to the back and southern side of my house (though would still cry), but the costs of that right now is prohibitive. Fire-proofing homes and properties will be costly all around.
And with insurance hikes … Oy. For those of us lucky to still have coverage (which may be a temporary status). I’m with State Farm and they’ve left the state for any new policies, keeping a very critical eye on all the rest of their remaining policies in California I’m sure.
For the first time I had to take photos and answer a questionnaire for them last year. Haven’t received the bill for 2025 yet, should come within the next couple months. Can’t wait. 😦
Michelle, do you really mean $30,000, or should that be $3,000?
In the late 1980s a man in my church (Phoenix area) had the husband die unexpectedly, leaving behind a widow and two teen daughters. A month or two later, I heard the widow say she just didn’t know what she was going to do, that her mortgage was $1,000 a month. I was rather shocked and couldn’t imagine a mortgage that high. (And I’ve never paid a mortgage much more than half of that; Nashville was my only city with a mortgage, and having the uncertain income of freelance, I had to keep my costs really low.)
Toward the end of my time in Chicago (around 2000), I heard of studio apartments in Chicago in “desirable” locations renting for more than $1,000 per month, and I was shocked. Now I hear that nationwide rent averages around $1,600 a month. For rent, no equity, and no guarantees the price won’t go up farther. How do people afford it?
my home is paid off but what I was renting it for to others was more than my monthly s payment. And I refused to raise the rent. I was told that I could certainly get more
Drove my ash-covered Jeep (that looked like I’d actually been off-roading somewhere!) on errand runs today. Every other car on the road looked pretty much the same.
Thankful for front and back windshield wipers. They cleared a bit of view space so we could see where we were going.
You read the number correctly: $30K a month and higher.
Remember the houses that burned were some of the most expensive homes on the west coast.
in a similar shocking number, the Washington Post’s financial writer, Michelle Singletary, reported today that almost 20% of new car buyers borrowing money are making car payments of over $1000 a month.
Wandering Views 
Good morning, Wanderers! Thankful that we did not lose power overnight. We continue under threat of power loss as our winds can cause the icy branches to break today.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Did anyone here ever have a rabbit’s foot keychain? Art mentioned the softness of Miss Bosley’s paws, and I remembered those.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good morning all with another beautiful skiff of snow.
mumsee
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had a rabbit’s foot when I was a teen. It was on a keychain, and it was hung on my purse. It must have been the style to have one, since it wouldn’t have been for any luck. What a strange style when I think about it now.
I recently finished a couple of books that were quite interesting. One was Try Yingst’s account of the Oct. attack in Isreal, “Black Saturday.” The other was, “Covert Cows & Chick-Fil-A” by Steve Robinson. That one talks about his time in promoting Chick-Fil-A. It would be especially interesting for anyone having or wanting a business, but it was enlightening as to how that business was brought from one restaurant to many.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey AJ, a couple of days ago I asked what email address you’re using now. Several of them come up when I type your name into my email account, and I tried two and one was rejected and the other told me the mailbox was full.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember having a rabbit’s foot, but I don’t remember if it was a keychain or not. May have been, though.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I had one, it was on a chain, too — maybe in middle school years?
So … were those *really* rabbit feet???! Now I’m kind of creeped out by that.
Long day, had to work a Saturday shift & do a story on all the political fallout and crossfire going on now due to the fires. Turned out long but got some good people to talk to.
It’s been a very busy and hectic week for all of us, exhausting. And more red flag warnings for winds coming by Monday, we’re told.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I remember thinking the rabbit’s foot keychain was very neat back in the day, but I found when I thought about it now it seemed a bit creepy. I read a few things about them and they were considered amulets by some, like a lucky charm. I also saw one reference to witches. It reminded me of how easily we let such things slip into the lives of the young, just going along with the current fads without really checking into the background.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We still have power, but many people are without still.
I seem to have a minor cold with sneezes and sniffles. Miss Bosley had sneezing when we picked her up from boarding. I may have caught it from her. I did catch a sneezing illness from a cat when I was young. I never in my life have ever sneezed as much as I did with that.
I just took Mucinex. I bought a large box at Sam’s and shared half of it with our son.
LikeLike
Cheryl -Is this one you’ve tried?
allencjacks@yahoo.com
LikeLike
Yeah, thinking about it now, the fact that it was a real rabbit’s foot is disturbing. How many rabbits did they have to kill just to get their feet? 😦
And I do remember the term “lucky rabbit’s foot”, although we didn’t take it seriously.
Another thing I remember from my childhood was that you were supposed to say “Rabbit” the very first thing when you woke up on the first day of a new month, for good luck. Again, even though we might try to remember to do that, we didn’t take it seriously.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pretty certain they were not killed for their feet. More that the feet were the icing on the cake. I saw some but never had one. I thought it very odd to carry around a dead rabbit’s foot.
mumsee
LikeLiked by 2 people
We silly pre-teen girls just thought they were pretty, many were died unique colors. But no, we never thought they seriously brought “good luck” or whatever they were supposed to bring.
Now I can’t get the image out of my head of rabbits’ feet decorating the top of a cake …
LikeLiked by 3 people
And we thought it was strange that some women wore a fur, including the head with beady eyes around their shoulders. At least one of my grandmothers did. I am sure her son’s trapped a mink and made it for her. I wonder if someone still has it?
LikeLiked by 3 people
People did and do eat rabbit. I wonder if they were imported from a country that did that? I have eaten it, but not since I was a child. We raised rabbits for a while, but mostly just for fun.
I remember they were dyed. I think mine was pink, if I remember correctly.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mine was just plain old white.
Today, when I click on the box to write a comment, I have to click on it again for the cursor to come up and to be able to type. Anyone else?
LikeLiked by 1 person
My friend raises rabbits – for meat and fur. They are the cutest little things – not sure I could eat one that I had raised.
LikeLiked by 3 people
No problem with the cursor today, Kizzie.
I don’t think I had my own rabbit’s foot keychain, but got to hold and admire the ones that friends had. I mostly remember how soft they were, exactly like Miss Bosley’s paws.
They are still available on Amazon, real and fake ones.
I do remember all the furs with the heads and little paws attached. Once when I visited the large Presbyterian church near us (it recently shut down), I was amazed that almost every woman seemed to have a fur wrapped around her shoulders. It was as if they all had to wear a little beast to church. I am sure I wore a look of surprise or shock at the sight.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not sure if I tried that one, Peter, so I just did. Thank you.
Re the rabbit’s feet: I remember seeing them, and being allowed to stroke one, but my mom had said that people had them for good luck, and so they never interested me.
I also wasn’t allowed to make a totem pole when my class made them in art class as though they were simply a cute thing that American Indians made. Mom explained they had religious significance, and I definitely wasn’t interested after that, though I think that just left me with drawing paper or something ordinary while the class did something more fun. I would think there might be a way for a teacher to say something like, “Would you just like to make a sculpture of an animal, not a totem pole?” But it’s also possible she tried something like that and I was afraid she was offering a compromise with worshiping the devil and I refused, I don’t know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Michelle writes (in a novel, but true) of a missionary in Alaska who used a totem pole to share the gospel. Drum ceremonies etc. are in the schools although Christian ceremonies are not allowed. There are so many things that Christians do not realize are against the God of the bible.
It is a huge discussion, however. Paul was not concerned with those eating meat dedicated to false gods (demons) unless it was stressed and would hurt someone’s faith. Then there was the man who turned to believe in God but asked that when he entered a false god’s domain escorting his king to worship that god, that he himself would be forgiven.
The bottom line is always our hearts, which God knows. I do wonder if any of the students (or the teacher) was caused to look a little deeper into totem poles?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Sometimes, I would use the expression that something was or wasn’t “in the cards.” I took it as referring to a hand of cards in a card game. Then one day, it occurred to me that the expression is probably referring to tarot cards. Stopped saying that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kizzie, I just did a quick google search, and it looks like you’re right. I saw a similar assertion in two answers (I didn’t look farther). This is one of them. (BTW, I didn’t include “tarot” in my search, but simply asked what does “in the cards” mean.)
“The idiom in the cards or on the cards traces its roots to the ancient divination practice of cartomancy, where fortunes were foretold using cards, such as tarot cards. In this tradition, if an event or outcome was said to be in the cards, it was predicted based on the arrangement and interpretation of the cards.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
Another day for fires here, though it was good to see firefighters were beginning to get more of a handle on some of the fires last night. More winds expected Monday-Tuesday, but not as strong as last week.
The largest fire, Palisades, was making runs yesterday toward the San Fernando Valley/Brentwood, etc. But that appears to be held back for now.
It feels surreal out here right now, even for those of us not directly in the circle of fire (but are close enough to see and feel the effects not so very far away). The insurance impacts will be felt by all of us as companies already had been leaving the state & hiking rates.
There will be much discussion and debate about things that went wrong (beyond what was a perfect storm of weather conditions) and that will be appropriate. For now, everyone’s just trying to make it through the immediate disaster.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Rabbit feet — they were more of a (short-lived) mini-fad among young pre-teen girls when I was growing up, I don’t really remember anyone thinking they actually would bring “good luck.” They were sold at corner drug stores (for not much money), and they were soft and pretty. They came and went in ‘popularity’ — quickly as I recall. 🙂
Appreciated Kathaleena’s mention @9:05 of Paul’s approach in evangelizing amid some of the false beliefs in his day.
While our own culture once embraced Christian practices and beliefs somewhat widely, a positive environment in our view — (but whether the actual faith was behind it or not) — we’re no longer in that environment. And I wonder if we had a false illusion of being in a (truly) “Christian culture” in the past? Perhaps God uses difficult cultural environments to better “ground” believers.
Christians represent something contrary in most secular cultures. It’s a challenge but also a reminder to stay rooted in the faith, not the “culture” or politics around us at any given time.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Our headline today:
“Evacuations soar in the San Fernando Valley, Brentwood as Palisades fire extends to Day 5”
~ 6 helicopters flew throughout the night, dropping water on the blaze, as residents fled the area ~
We’ve also had some of our reporters and other staffers being evacuated but doesn’t sound like any have lost homes.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Up here fire insurance is dropped willy-nilly and extremely expensive. We discussed at dinner what will happen now. Maybe no insurance sold in the state?
Then what happens?
When I walk around my neighborhood and see all the real estate signs, I wonder if it’s because their insurance was dropped. 😦
In hindsight, I’m not sure I would have written that totem pole into the story. Yes, I believe it was redeemed by being the Christmas story (Mary, Joseph, Jesus on the pole), but a totem pole does have a religious element for the Native Americans.
(Other than the totem pole, this is my favorite novella, The Gold Rush Christmas, because it included the true story of all the prostitutes in Skagway getting on a boat back to the mainland after hearing a gospel presentation on Mary Magdelene!)
I marveled this morning that a week ago my nephew’s family went to church and got ready to return to school after Christmas break. Two mornings later their church, school, and home burned to the ground.
Today, they’re 90 miles away, renting a new home, and the kids start a new school tomorrow.
And, of course, they’ve entered the nightmare zone of insurance and rebuilding.
DJ– in Santa Monica, rents are hitting $30K and up A MONTH.
There’s a story for you.
I know you live don’t live on that side of the hill, but how are the sunsets?
LikeLiked by 3 people
How sad for your nephew and family.
I will check on the sunset tonight, working from home and not really going much of anywhere this past week, just walking Abby, I’ve been isolated. Will mention the rents on our staff call tomorrow.
The smell of smoke has largely dissipated here though we’re told the air still isn’t very good to breathe. My house is old and drafty so what’s outside easily comes inside. Somewhere I had one of those space-alien looking air filter masks they provided all of us with (on staff), not sure if I still have it but would probably scare people if I wore it out.
I’d be glad to cut down the large trees right next to the back and southern side of my house (though would still cry), but the costs of that right now is prohibitive. Fire-proofing homes and properties will be costly all around.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And with insurance hikes … Oy. For those of us lucky to still have coverage (which may be a temporary status). I’m with State Farm and they’ve left the state for any new policies, keeping a very critical eye on all the rest of their remaining policies in California I’m sure.
For the first time I had to take photos and answer a questionnaire for them last year. Haven’t received the bill for 2025 yet, should come within the next couple months. Can’t wait. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Michelle, do you really mean $30,000, or should that be $3,000?
In the late 1980s a man in my church (Phoenix area) had the husband die unexpectedly, leaving behind a widow and two teen daughters. A month or two later, I heard the widow say she just didn’t know what she was going to do, that her mortgage was $1,000 a month. I was rather shocked and couldn’t imagine a mortgage that high. (And I’ve never paid a mortgage much more than half of that; Nashville was my only city with a mortgage, and having the uncertain income of freelance, I had to keep my costs really low.)
Toward the end of my time in Chicago (around 2000), I heard of studio apartments in Chicago in “desirable” locations renting for more than $1,000 per month, and I was shocked. Now I hear that nationwide rent averages around $1,600 a month. For rent, no equity, and no guarantees the price won’t go up farther. How do people afford it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
my home is paid off but what I was renting it for to others was more than my monthly s payment. And I refused to raise the rent. I was told that I could certainly get more
jo
LikeLike
Cheryl – re: $30,000 or $3000 – I meant to ask that, too, but then forgot. 🙂
LikeLike
I seem to have a bit of a cold and perhaps pinkeye. Just remembered that I do have eye drops so better go find them
jo
LikeLike
Drove my ash-covered Jeep (that looked like I’d actually been off-roading somewhere!) on errand runs today. Every other car on the road looked pretty much the same.
Thankful for front and back windshield wipers. They cleared a bit of view space so we could see where we were going.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You read the number correctly: $30K a month and higher.
Remember the houses that burned were some of the most expensive homes on the west coast.
in a similar shocking number, the Washington Post’s financial writer, Michelle Singletary, reported today that almost 20% of new car buyers borrowing money are making car payments of over $1000 a month.
I can’t imagine that, either.
LikeLiked by 1 person