Goals for Week Ending Saturday, December 7, 2013
Health
Call Humana for appointment for someone to come out. --done. Appointment set for 2pm 12/27/2013.
Dentist crown #2--Done. The old crown is off and the temporary crown is on & the new crown will be placed on 12/23.
Home
Clean out 5 drawers or cabinets--done.
Take prints to be framed--not done.
Online Christmas shopping--not done.
Quilting
Block #24-- Finished. Started #25.
Garden
Nada
Reading
The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flag--Finished. Loved it!
Empire if Liberty by Gordon S. Wood.
Slow Cooker Revolution by The Editors at America's Test Kitchen--So good that I am buying a copy.
Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.
Cooking
4 dinners
Take car in for maintenance--not done.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Gone Birding
We are off to Galveston Island for a nice day of birding. It has several excellent birding areas so we go at least once a year. We are both native BOIs and know just where to go. But there are always surprises. Once we were just driving along a back road and off to one side about 10 yards away was a flock of Sandhill cranes; we had never seen them so close.
Then we will have fresh seafood at our favorite place on the sea wall.
Looking forward to a fun day. Hope everyone has a good long weekend.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
NO!! NO!! NO!! continued
Well, it turns out I am not the only person to take issue with the Status of Forces Agreement being negotiated by Secretary of State John Kerry keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014. Here is a link to the editorial in today's NYT by the Editorial Board:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/opinion/sunday/the-long-goodbye-in-afghanistan.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
The last sentence, "Regardless of what he (John Kerry), the tribal council and the Afghan Parliament decide, President Obama still has to make a case for the deal to the American people." I do not think that case can be made at all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/opinion/sunday/the-long-goodbye-in-afghanistan.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
The last sentence, "Regardless of what he (John Kerry), the tribal council and the Afghan Parliament decide, President Obama still has to make a case for the deal to the American people." I do not think that case can be made at all.
Memory: Thoughts on God
Thoughts on God
When I was a child, my mother and I attended a little, independent Baptist church. We didn't attend every Sunday but we were members and I was baptized there. It was about the only social group my mother attended. My father was nominally Catholic but I can only remember him attending a Catholic church once. I was not overly enthusiastic about Sunday School or the church service except for the rollicking Baptist singing. We had a pianist who could rival Jerry Lee Lewis. Our preacher wasn't a fire & brimstone type but when we held a revival, all bets were off. There would be singing and preaching and pounding the pulpit and much weeping and repenting. We would occasionally have dinner on the grounds and that would be fun--lots of food and the best iced tea have ever tasted.
The trouble started when I was in junior high school and it dawned on me what "Virgin Birth" meant. I remember thinking, "That's not right. That's not the way it happens!" I doubt if I had all the facts of life down pat then but I was a lot happier when it was Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus. It was all rather disconcerting. Maybe I wasn't a Baptist after all. But that was like saying maybe I wasn't a girl--it was who I was, who we were.
Now in the 1950s and 1960s in our little community there were Catholics and Baptists and Jews. At least that was all I knew about. I knew I wasn't a Catholic, although I loved the inside of the Catholic Churches that I had been in when attending a wedding or funeral; they were beautiful and mysterious. Our little Baptist church was poor and plain and not beautiful at all. And I was sure I wasn't a Jew because we had bacon and shrimp and Christmas and Easter. But it would be a lot simpler, I thought, if all you had to do was keep the 10 commandments and not worry about virgins and rising from the dead.
By the time I was in high school, I had discovered Methodists and Presbyterians and Lutherans. I was especially taken with the Episcopalians because they had all the beauty and ceremony of the Catholics without the Pope or nuns. One of my friends was a member of the Assembly of God. She invited me to attend a Sunday evening service at her church. All was well during the singing and those people could sing and the pianist could rival ours. But then they started praising God and speaking in tongues. Well, to this little Baptist, that was Satanic or witchcraft or something I didn't want to have anything to do with. I left before the preaching started. Still don't understand glossalalia but it sure wasn't for me.
Then I went to college and lost interest in religion for a while. I was married in the little Baptist church. The dear ladies of the church were like family to me. They gave me a wedding shower in 1968 and I still use some of the things they gave me. They prayed every day for my husband while he was in Vietnam. They gave me a baby shower when I was expecting our baby.
In the end I never found the perfect church but I did learn to appreciate the love and kindness of the people in that little Baptist church.
When I was a child, my mother and I attended a little, independent Baptist church. We didn't attend every Sunday but we were members and I was baptized there. It was about the only social group my mother attended. My father was nominally Catholic but I can only remember him attending a Catholic church once. I was not overly enthusiastic about Sunday School or the church service except for the rollicking Baptist singing. We had a pianist who could rival Jerry Lee Lewis. Our preacher wasn't a fire & brimstone type but when we held a revival, all bets were off. There would be singing and preaching and pounding the pulpit and much weeping and repenting. We would occasionally have dinner on the grounds and that would be fun--lots of food and the best iced tea have ever tasted.
The trouble started when I was in junior high school and it dawned on me what "Virgin Birth" meant. I remember thinking, "That's not right. That's not the way it happens!" I doubt if I had all the facts of life down pat then but I was a lot happier when it was Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus. It was all rather disconcerting. Maybe I wasn't a Baptist after all. But that was like saying maybe I wasn't a girl--it was who I was, who we were.
Now in the 1950s and 1960s in our little community there were Catholics and Baptists and Jews. At least that was all I knew about. I knew I wasn't a Catholic, although I loved the inside of the Catholic Churches that I had been in when attending a wedding or funeral; they were beautiful and mysterious. Our little Baptist church was poor and plain and not beautiful at all. And I was sure I wasn't a Jew because we had bacon and shrimp and Christmas and Easter. But it would be a lot simpler, I thought, if all you had to do was keep the 10 commandments and not worry about virgins and rising from the dead.
By the time I was in high school, I had discovered Methodists and Presbyterians and Lutherans. I was especially taken with the Episcopalians because they had all the beauty and ceremony of the Catholics without the Pope or nuns. One of my friends was a member of the Assembly of God. She invited me to attend a Sunday evening service at her church. All was well during the singing and those people could sing and the pianist could rival ours. But then they started praising God and speaking in tongues. Well, to this little Baptist, that was Satanic or witchcraft or something I didn't want to have anything to do with. I left before the preaching started. Still don't understand glossalalia but it sure wasn't for me.
Then I went to college and lost interest in religion for a while. I was married in the little Baptist church. The dear ladies of the church were like family to me. They gave me a wedding shower in 1968 and I still use some of the things they gave me. They prayed every day for my husband while he was in Vietnam. They gave me a baby shower when I was expecting our baby.
In the end I never found the perfect church but I did learn to appreciate the love and kindness of the people in that little Baptist church.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
NO!! NO!! NO!!
This from the front page of today's NYT:
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had finalized the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would allow for a lasting American troop presence through 2024 and set the stage for billions of dollars of international assistance to keep flowing to the government in Kabul.
I can't believe it!! Yes, I can. I am furious!! I voted for Barak Obama for President, not John Kerry. Surely, a treaty committing billions of dollars and U.S. troops on the ground has to be ratified by the U.S. Congress???? 2024?? Isn't 12 years, billions of dollars and thousands of lives and limbs all for nothing enough?? NO, just NO, this cannot happen!!!
Edited to add this email which I just sent to President Barak Obama, Rep. Pete Olson, Senator John Cornyn, and Senator Ted Cruz:
Dear President Obama,
I am troubled by the news reports today that a treaty is being considered that would keep American troops in Afghanistan until 2024 and would continue to pour billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan. This is not to be done. The time to leave Afghanistan is 2014 as we were told we would. There will be chaos when we leave whether it is 2014, 2024, or 2054. We have urgent business here at home, in the United States. Let's not dissipate our resources in endless quagmires.
Next I will call the offices of all 4.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had finalized the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would allow for a lasting American troop presence through 2024 and set the stage for billions of dollars of international assistance to keep flowing to the government in Kabul.
I can't believe it!! Yes, I can. I am furious!! I voted for Barak Obama for President, not John Kerry. Surely, a treaty committing billions of dollars and U.S. troops on the ground has to be ratified by the U.S. Congress???? 2024?? Isn't 12 years, billions of dollars and thousands of lives and limbs all for nothing enough?? NO, just NO, this cannot happen!!!
Edited to add this email which I just sent to President Barak Obama, Rep. Pete Olson, Senator John Cornyn, and Senator Ted Cruz:
Dear President Obama,
I am troubled by the news reports today that a treaty is being considered that would keep American troops in Afghanistan until 2024 and would continue to pour billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan. This is not to be done. The time to leave Afghanistan is 2014 as we were told we would. There will be chaos when we leave whether it is 2014, 2024, or 2054. We have urgent business here at home, in the United States. Let's not dissipate our resources in endless quagmires.
Next I will call the offices of all 4.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Around Oak Meadows: The Pond
There is a pond behind our property. When we moved here the pond was clear and lovely. Thanks to our neighbors pouring fertilizer on their yard, the pond is no longer clear and lovely. There are still some wading birds who come looking for frogs and small fish but not as many.
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