Stirrings
I’ve had fun with personal posts, things that have been going on. But face it. My life is not that spell-binding. I’m not leaving the blogasphere but I am going to speak more from my heart occasionally here and in comments “out there.”
You’ve noticed from my sidebar that I have an interest in prophecy. I love putting pieces together probably because I have a deep need to understand. The conclusions don’t have to be pleasant but I need them. Wisdom dictates that once a conclusion is made, especially if it is speculative, there must be room for lots of flexibility for change.
So bear with me. If there are topics in Bible prophecy you just aren’t prepared to discuss, so be it. However, I must.
I promise to keep one foot in reality. Being my father’s daughter, I can’t resist having fun and poking fun. With equal passion, I will address matters of concern to me. I don’t ask you to agree, I do ask you not to throw flames and spears. That’s not fun. But if you want to pull up a rock at the campfire, poke the embers, count the stars, and sing along, I’ll bring the marshmallows.
That’s what Across the Flow means.
Gonna do it this weekend!!
The floor tile is about to get …. uh …..
Better analogy: Remember press on nails? Did the same manufacturer diversify to floor tile?
The day I realized we were getting new flooring, I bought two boxes. My choices were simple. Either pull out the evil charge card and get all the boxes I needed or interrogate the sales associate aka clerk to confirm that we can come in once a week for the next 3 or 4 weeks and pick up another box off the huge pile in stock. “Yes, ma’am.” (There’s that horrible m word again.)
Honey approved of the pattern and at the end of the week on payday, stopped at Lowe’s and picked up another box. Wrong pattern. No matter. Exchange it tomorrow on the way to work. I saw the email when I got to work. “They’re out of our choice and won’t have it in again for two weeks.” Well, two weeks is about right for our schedule, but maybe the Lowe’s out my way has it. Two or nine emails later, we decided that since I was putting in some OT and since Honey was going to the shop anyway, he would pick up another box. One box. But, what if ……. No, just one at a time like we agreed.
Fortunately, the supply wasn’t sold out over the last 10 days and we have acquired another box. We have plenty to cover at least the walk ways.
I was getting rather used to the plywood look, primitive, but artsy in a quilty sort of way, varied with a spray of coffee and adventurously topped with microscopic shards of glass achieved by flinging in an impressively wide arc a cheap glass tumbler from the exterior water and ice access in the freezer door. Two of those glittery charmers attached to my left foot.
Honey sealed the seams with some grey goop, will snap a few chalk lines tomorrow evening, and smear the primer first thing Saturday. I’ll have to think fast to move the coffeepot to I-don’t-know-where-yet.
I think I’ll go to the video rental store and look for The Best of HGTV or maybe Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We’ll see how it goes.
Dragged through a knothole backwards nine times
Every muscle is sore, every joint protests.
Usually remodelling jobs start with a throw pillow according to Erma Bombeck, my favorite mentor of mothering. Some of her most valuable and timeless instructions on childrearing and homemaking inclued “Answer me! Don’t talk with food in your mouth!” and Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop offs at tedium and counter productivity.
Our most recent do-over started with paint samples, all of which were sitting lifelessly on an end table but are now in a drawer, out of the way of the Christmas decorations that are still there. It’s been 7 years that we’ve battled this narrow passage from the living room to the kitchen. The problem was that the refrigerator was facing the pointy corner of the countertop. Sliding past was high risk. The other option was circling through the dining room. Read the rest of this entry »
Pardon me, your slip is showing
and other verbosity.
I am not aware of being currently acquainted with anyone who wears a slip. I don’t ask. I fear it has gone the way of the unicorn and the pantaloon. I was going to say corset, but I do know someone — never mind. And it’s not me!
The arrival of the new Sears and Roebuck catalog was a banner day. That meant that Mom would be lazily thumbing through it and we got the old one to play Paper Dolls. We would clamor for the models in the lingerie slip section, looking for the ones with feet, always properly clad in black pumps. Then we would search the dress section to build a fine wardrobe. We called the exercise Cut-Outs. I have neither explanation nor judgement on the correctness of the terms. Some say soda, some say pop. To say one’s slip was showing meant that there was something they failed to hide and was a cause for embarrassment. That phrase, too, with the demise of the common use of the garment, has lost it’s origin.
Terminology can be regional and/or associated with the socio-economic level. It’s also directly related to what decade the speaker attended grade school. Others call it grammar school. Is that an age related term or a regional one? Who calls the evening meal dinner and who calls it supper? Why? Which is correct and to whom is either correct?
I listen to a lot of talk radio. Therefore, I hear a lot of people from all over call in with their opinions. Many times I can tell you if they are over 50 or under 25 by the speed of their speech and their terminology. Their grammar, diction, and vocabulary betrays whether they learned to read and speak through phonics or sight reading or if they were interested in reading more than comic books.
All of my statements are general, so don’t get hot and quote “Judge not!” at me. I hear what I hear and sometimes what I hear annoys the beejeepers out of me because these people’s thoughts are intelligent but their manner of expression and its content would cause Henry Higgins to hang himself. Many terms and phrases that annoy me are not the result of poor education or a limited environment — what would that be? somewhere where there is not and never has been a radio, television, or textbook? There are phrases that have been invented or are so overused they are ready for Mom’s ragbag. These permeate society and are used by the speaker to sound professional but shine only in the arena of redundancy.
Some of the phrases I most want to purge forever from the planet include but are not limited to:
EggZakkleee! The first and consistently only response to someone who has just agreed with the speaker.
BaaaySicklee — A word used to introduce literally every summarizing statement of which there may be six until the host interrupts.
Y’know what I mean? Added to the end of every expressed thought in order to evoke feedback, which could soon be, in my case, regurgitation.
And the reason I say that is Precedes each subsequent sentence but the reason itself is never revealed.
Like Inserted like everywhere.
Y’know Reference “like.”
Foe-cusss, ishyoo, team player, feedback, paradigm, are tired and need to be alternated once in a while. All have been used as shrouds of authority to elevate oneself and intimidate those who don’t need to impress.
Those last few are useful, but you have to admit, ready for rotation.
And would someone please, please translate SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER spoken to evoke an Ooo or an Ahh and a knowing nod of the head. That one has to be the ultimate prize winning height of pomposity that I have ever heard!
What are your biggest verbal peeves?
The crack in the coconut
They say that as a person ages, the short term memory fades and the long term memory sharpens. I forget why.
I remember hearing while still in grade school that it was against the law to pray in school anymore. Prior to that, I remember the teacher leading the class in the pledge of allegiance and a short prayer. I assume it was addressed to the God I was familiar with but I can’t recall any content or if it was closed with “in Jesus’ Name” or not. What pains me at this moment is that I had to look up “allegiance” in Webster’s.
When I looked up Madeline Murray O’hair (no, it’s not O’Hare) I saw that the lawsuit was won in 1963. That would put me in junior high. So much for long term memory. But I was close, sort of.
When I’ve reflected on her victory, I’ve seen it as a single-handed one. Mom, the Republican, and Dad, the Democrat, both “straight ticket” voters, were bonded in Christianity as well as marriage. If something or someone threatened their prized freedoms of religion or speech, verbal fur flew — ususally from their political platforms. I don’t remember hearing anything out of either of them regarding a woman’s efforts to sterilize the public schools according to her personal chosen lack of religion or that that choice was her right.
Did they not take her seiously because she was seen as a single voice? Were they so complacent in their WWII victory and their own upbringing that they considered her to be up against an immovable giant of public opinion and would go down in flames? Did the nation laugh at her because she was “just” a woman? We won’t go there.
She found the crack in the coconut. The nation stood stunned, speechless at the sight of the pieces of their familiar world on the ground. Since then various groups have taken up the cause to reverse the decision with no success so far. By the way, was that a judicial decision or a legislative decision? I may be looking at this far too simply, but I side with the theory that my constitutional right to religion, particularly in a public setting was denied rather than defined. I have the constitutional right to say that.
I don’t remember anyone speaking up prior to the decision to eliminate my choice to pray on school property. I don’t remember feeling the need to do so until I was told I couldn’t.
How to boil a frog:
Place frog in a pot of cool water. Place the pot on the burner. Slowly increase the temperature of the burner one degree at a time until frog is cooked. Don’t worry, the frog won’t notice until it’s too late.
What else have we lost in the name of other people’s rights without exercising our own right to express our opinions? What else will disappear if no one speaks out?
To all that are offended by the Judeo-Christian holidays and the celebrations thereof — we all have the freedom OF religion, not the freedom FROM it.
Debut of Henry and Doris
(The skits performed were written for us and it was only after that was I informed of these names as characters from the 70’s under the general title Pillars of the Assembly. I have no current access to that material.)
Today was our first skit, oh excuse me, drama as Henry and Doris. Since many of my readers could not make it to Tennessee today, let me fill you in.
Henry and Doris are the worst hypocrites on the planet put here to teach us all how not to behave as Christians. They are the ones non Christians point to when they say that the church is full of them, or “it,” depending on your level of experience. It was fun to ham it up as them. We are not Henry and Doris (anymore), but let me tell you, we have met them, sometimes outside our home, sometimes in our rotten old natural selves.
Henry and Doris are sitting in their house. Henry is reading his paper, Doris is clipping coupons. The dog barks, needing to let out. Without repeating the entire script verbatim, here’s the nutshell.
They are sniping at each other using scripture as ammo. She had told him to take the dog out. He had told her to take the dog out. “Wives, obey your husbands.” Ohhh, but “Husbands, love your wives.”
She thinks he should be doing something, anything but sitting. He likes doing nothing. She quotes Proverbs 19:15. “Laziness brings on deep sleep and a shiftlessssssss man goes hungry.” Ohhhh, but Proverbs 21:9 says “It is better for a man to live on a corner of the roof than to dwell with a quarrelsome woman.”
At this point two people from the local church call on them. Suddenly they put on their church faces and fake smiles just until the door closes after the visitors. She snaps at him for even answering the door. He reads the scripture from the pamphlet, Colossians 3:12-14 “So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” (The Message translation).
Being Henry, he pointed to Doris, saying how amazing it was that God knew just what she needed to hear, then seeing her face, apologized.
I’m looking forward to what Henry and Doris are up to next.
Welcome to my new page
It’s free. What can I say? All the posts from Typepad have been imported, sorted, snorted, and stored. I’m still nesting, getting used to the new layout.
Today is a don’t bother me day. So far, I’ve boxed the tree for another 11 months, and signed up for a website to sell my baby blankets and Honey’s woodworking stuff. It seems like a lot to go through for what is so far a low inventory hobby. Hopefully, we can get the camera organized soon and add items around the house, like books or .. or .. we aren’t there yet.
As soon as the domain name is locked in, I will post it here. In the meantime, have a great weekend.
