Thursday, August 25, 2011

Two verses for today

Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV)

8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

 

1 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)

16 Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:
   He appeared in the flesh,
   was vindicated by the Spirit,[a]
was seen by angels,
   was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
   was taken up in glory.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Interesting lists

Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books
https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
And

Fantasy Worlds In Literature
http://www.cool-story.com/story/208/Fantasy-Worlds-In-Literature/

Today's Gratitude list

Sappy stuff:

  1. I am grateful for my health.  I may have a few problems (Fibromyalgia, and 2 forms of arthritis), but I am relatively healthy.  I do not have cancer or heart problems.  I am blessed.
  2. I am grateful for the health of my family members.  Most problems that they are incurring are relatively minor and well-handled ones at this point.  
  3. I am grateful for the furry friends in my home.  My 2 cats and goofball dog are wonderful companions.  They just make me smile and see the good in a otherwise craptastic day.
  4. Books (real and electronic), I love to read and love being surrounded by words, stories and knowledge.  

Silly stuff:

  1. The stuffed eagle that sits on my desk.  It reminds me of how much God loves even the birds and how I am blessed to have been born in this nation.  
  2. Tacos, my favorite food.
  3. Caffeine free diet coke, the nectar of gods (bad cliché, I know).
  4. My clipboard.  It holds all my transcribing forms for school and keeps me sane.  It's easy to move out of the way, yet it keeps things in check.
  5. Air conditioning.  It's not super hot at the moment, but a/c keeps things on an even keel. It also keeps my allergies in check.







Friday, August 12, 2011

Gratitude List

I have decided to keep a gratitude list online. I hope to do it several days a week. I thought daily, but realized I might be setting myself up for failure that way.  I will try to list a minimum of three things I am grateful in a couple different areas:  Sappy and silly.  

Sappy gratitude list:
  1. My family, even though they make me nuts sometimes
  2. My Savior, Christ Jesus
  3. My church family.  They rock, nuff said!
  4. My dog who still acts super silly at 14 years of age.   
  5. My nutty cats who think they own me.
Silly gratitude list

  1. My computer.
  2. My computer chair.
  3. My ergonomic keyboard.
  4. The finches that visit my feeders.  They are pretty and fierce at the same time.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

A few poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Self Reliance"

Henceforth, please God, forever I forego
The yoke of men's opinions.  I will be
Light hearted as a bird, and live with God.
I find him in the bottom of my heart,
I hear continually his voice therein.

The little needle always knows the North,
The little bird remembereth his note,
And this wise Seer within me never errs.
I never follow, when I act aright.
[October 9, 1832]


And when I am entombed in my place,
Be it remembered of a single man,
He never, though he dearly loved his race,
For fear of human eyes swerved from his plan.

Oh what is Heaven but the fellowship
Of minds that each can stand against the world
By its own meek and incorruptible will?

The days pass over me
And I am still the same;
The aroma of my life is gone
With the flower with which it came.

[1833]


"The Informing Spirit"


                I

There is no great and no small
To the Soul that maketh all:
And where it cometh, all things areI
And it cometh everywhere.

                II

I am owner of the sphere,
Of the seven stars and the solar year,
Of Caesar's hand, and Plato's brain,
Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain.
[1904 ]


"Grace"

How much, preventing God, how much I owe
To the defences thou hast round me set;
Example, custom, fear, occasion slow,--
These scorned bondmen were my parapet.
I dare not peep over this parapet
To gauge with glance the roaring gulf below,
The depths of sin to which I had descended,
Had not these me against myself defended.
[1842]



"The Apology"

Think me not unkind and rude
    That I walk alone in grove and glen;
I go to the god of the wood
    To fetch this word of men.

Tax not my sloth that I
    Fold my arms beside the brook;
Each cloud that floated in the sky
    Writes a letter in my book.

Chide me not, laborious band,
    For the idle flowers I brought;
Every aster in my hand
    Goes home loaded with a thought.

There was never mystery
    But 't is figured in the flowers;
Was never secret history
    But birds tell it in the bowers.

One harvest from they field
    Homeward brought the oxen strong;
A second crop thine acres yield
    Which I gather in a song.

[1847]

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

If only I could explain to the critters that it's only 2 more weeks of chaos…

 
At least that is the projected timeline for the contractors to be here. They seem to be flying through the job. The roof is done and they are starting on the siding. After that it's the deck, indoor carpentry and shed. It's helped that the rain comes at night so it's not slowing them down much. The critters don't really care for all the work or the strangers presence.

The older cat hides all the time under my son's bed. The dog is jumpy and barks constantly. The younger cat is ready to run, but is okay as long as the contractors are outside. *lol* The animals are slowly adjusting to my nephew coming in and out. He works for the contractor, but since it's Gramma's house, he comes and goes as he pleases on breaks. I have to admit that the humans are ready to have the strangers gone as well. *lol*

On top of having people here, we have run the roads for the last 3 out of 4 days which hasn't been exactly fun either. We have one more day of running, then we are home until Sunday.

Two more weeks, two more weeks, two more weeks…

Friday, June 03, 2011

Green tootsies

I stepped outside to refill the hummingbird feeder and decide to quick mow the front lawn…barefoot.  So now, my tootsies are green and black even after being washed.  Oh well, it will wear off.

I am surprised at how dry parts of the yard were in spite of the nasty t-storm we had this morning and all the rain that we've had this spring.  It's been a really, really wet spring so far.  The ground squishes when you walk on it.  *lol* 

I eventually did put some shoes on when walking on the stupid tree saplings started to hurt too much.  I swear the 5 trees in my yard could reforest the Sahara.  *lol*

Monday, May 16, 2011

Sage advice....

Four things you can't recover:

1. The stone after the throw
2. The word after it's said
3. The occasion after it's missed
4. The time after it's gone.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

So the plumber returns my call at 10:30 a.m. this morning.

This is the call I made 2 weeks ago to him. *lol* I tell him a couple things on the list to which he replies, "I"ll be there in 15 minutes." Oh great. I quickly get dressed. I went to bed at 5:30 am so I was still asleep when the phone rang. His 15 was more like 45. Oh well, I was plenty wide awake by the time he showed up. *lol*

He looked over the things we had for him and said, "I can do this right now. Probably the water heater today too." He heads out to the truck to get some tools. At this point, we have no fixtures in our shower. We have a new hole in our kitchen wall above the former access to the tub fixtures. *lol*

He's at lunch and will be back later. I have most of the "homework" he gave me completed. Unfortunately, I can't find the tubing for the ice maker. I did find the valves. Oh well, if he puts in the valve in the water pipe, I can do the tubing later.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

UGH! Bummed out right now...

I lost my backup flash drive for CareerStep (medical transcription school) stuff.  I kept old forum posts, reports, notes, Shorthand backups, word lists, and miscellaneous school stuff on that thing.  It fell off the desk drawer where it was hanging and into the trash bin that was dumped into the main trash. Guess what today was?  Yep, trash day, and we even had it out to the curb on time.  UGH!!!!  For once I wished we missed trash day, but I won't tell my son that or he might accidentally forget on purpose next week.  *lol*

That was my first flash drive that I bought when I went back to college in '02.  It's tiny (128 mb), but it was attached to my favorite lanyard from my college.  It was a pretty purple while the lanyard was red with white lettering.  So what if they clashed, they were both easy to see for my weak middle aged eyes.  *lol*

I can and have recreated the backup information on another flash drive that is an ugly black and holds more data (2 gb), but I want my old one back!  Waa waa!!!!

Okay, back to your regular more important programming. I think I am done whining.  :D

Saturday, March 12, 2011

A funny after the blizzard.....

My son opens the front door for his first look outside. He comes back saying,  "I see you have been working diligently on clearing the snow today."



Is there supposed to be a path there?

I chuckle, then snort, then chuckle some more.

He asks, "Do you wish to go anywhere tomorrow?"

Me, "No."

Mom and I had discussed staying put until it was warm enough to be out shoveling which should be tomorrow afternoon or Monday. Temps didn't get up as much as they were supposed to with a high of about 3° with a nasty bitter wind.

He grins, "Oh...Great!", he heads back upstairs happy as a lark. He does most of the shoveling.

Two big things happened yesterday.

First, the contractor came by yesterday before the storm to discuss plans for:

~new siding
~new roof
~stairs (new in basement; more headroom going up to the 2nd floor)
~decks (new in back wrapping around and connecting to side)
~new front door
~last 3 new windows
~garage (decided to only put a new utility door on and rebuild it in a year)

We should have an estimate and some sketches in the next couple of weeks.  If the weather cooperates, we may have a crew working on the house in May or June.  Yay!  Mom is super excited.  This is why she retired :D

The second big thing is I finally called the plumber.  We have all the parts we want installed.  We didn't want to pay his prices for parts, and we wanted a specific design. The plumber will:

~fix a tub leak which means I don't have to shut the water off when not in use
~install new shower fixtures
~install line for ice maker
~install a new hot water heater
~hook the humidifier directly to the sink drain so I no longer have to put it on the sink to drain into the sink. 
~investigate possible gas leak (I think it's coming from an outside source--old gas station--and if I'm right I need to call the guy who checks in yearly on this)

Oh, and last week mom finally ordered new curtains for the living room and found rods a few days later.  It's only been 3 years since the new windows were installed.  I guess it's time.  *lol*

Bare pantry

My son cleaned out our pantry (dry goods) about 10 days or so ago. My son, who is 24, works in Retail/Grocery so he's the king of expira...