More Active Posts
Front Page
Whirled Views 4.26
 |
 38 Comments |
Happy Saturday!
Today’s quote is from a comedian: “Too bad the only people who know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair.”
 |
Topic: WorldMagBlog |  |
Email a friend |
 |
Keywords: |  |
RSS 2.0 |
 |
Both comments and pings are currently closed. |  |
Share this: |
A matter of life
George Burns - who also said: “When I was young I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then and I’m labeled senile.”
I woke up at 3:30 this morning worrying about you guys. Not really.
But I did wake up thinking about getting glasses to AJISUUN’s ladies. (AJI, see “Rants & Raves”.)
Then I started thinking about Pauline’s water problem. As I said, it can be tricky, and expensive. The best thing is to divert the water if possible. Digging into the ground is expensive. The water doesn’t want to go into a basement, it thinks it’s going to the Mississippi, but finds itself stuck there, being vacuumed up. Just send it away, if possible.
Then I started thinking about Kim’s problem. I know, as she explained, it isn’t a credit card problem. But I started thinking about credit anyhow. It’s amazing what your mind can do at 4 am. The reason I was thinking about credit is on the next post, because I’m afraid to write too much at on time. I might already be logged off and not know it.
Good morning all, and thanks to those of you who lifted my family up in prayer yesterday. The “meeting” with the other family actually went over fairly well. And talk about good timing–about 2 hours after we met with them, I found out that this person (earlier in the day) had spread *even more* lies about my husband. We met with them before I knew that (I may not have been able to follow through if I knew before). Perhaps our reaching out to them will stop her gossiping tongue. I am also beginning to feel encouraged that the majority of the people who have been hearing these lies know my husband (and myself) well enough to know they are untrue. Please continue to pray for this situation. I don’t know about you, but I have felt Satan on the attack so much this year.
My dad was an electrician at a steel plant. He made good money. He died without anything though, because he always spent his money before he got it. (By “without anything”, I mean that I made the payments on his house for the last few years.) He always drove a late model car. Kim would have loved him. He didn’t care how much the car cost. We was concerned about meeting the payments. Some people are like that. They once were paying for a set of tires they no longer owned. But, in their minds, they weren’t paying for tires. They were “paying the Ward’s bill”. When you lose sight of what you’re paying for, you’re in trouble. (When I paid my Sam’s Club card this month, I thought, “I put $79 worth of gas in that truck this month.”) When it just becomes, the Sam’s Club bill, or the Penny’s bill, etc. we lose sight of what we’re doing.
Mom of Four,
I remember a story about a situation similar to yours. Seems like it was Charlie Shedd’s wife who put a stop to it. (I could be wrong.) But the situation was much like you described, and it was dividing the church and causing lots of collateral damage. Anyway she invited this person over for the coveted Martha Shedd’s baked item (I forget what it was, but it was something not to be missed). After the fellowship, Martha looked straight in her eye and said in no uncertain terms, that this person was never to spread rumours and gossip again, or she would never get any more of these [baked item].
I don’t know what the outcome of it all was, but you can imagine how chagrined the perp was… Martha’s ire was evidently something to behold…
Thanks, Make it Man! That’s similar to what happened last night (although I didn’t say that to her…8*) But she did seem a little shocked, maybe a little embarassed, that we showed up on their doorstep with a complete meal. We’ll see what happens from here…
Off to my boys games. Have a lovely Saturday everyone!!
Blessings!
Momoffour, I thought about you too. And was praying for you, and Joe B and others here. My list is getting longer. Come back soon Lynn.
What that leads to is this. I started thinking about credit cards. We discussed them briefly yesterday.
My last Visa bill was $390.00, which I paid when I got it. However, I was only required to pay $15.00. Suppose I had only paid $15.00? (Which my dad would have done. The good old BankAmerica only makes me pay $15.00.) Then: Dealing in $’s here.) Assuming my interest rate is 18%. (Here=APR)
390-15=375, then
375×1.015=380.63 (assuming I haven’t added to it.)
380.63-15=365.63
365.63×1.015=371.11
371.11-15=356.11
356.11xAPR=361.45
361.45-15=345.45
346.45xAPR=351.65
351.65-15=336.55
336.65xAPR=341.70
341.70-15=326.70
326.70xAPR=331.60
That’s as far as we go because it gets tedious. But you see that in six months I have paid $90, but only $58.40 on my debt. That means that I’ve paid $31.60 to borrow $390 for six months. Actually, it’s worse than that, because in the interim, I’ve made other purchases which no longer have a grace period.
Then I end up pennyless because the evil BankAmerica stole all my money while I wasn’t looking.
My dad never understood that.
They once traded cars because they were going to have to repair the one they had.
Lesson over. Sorry to bother you.
#3. “I don’t know about you, but I have felt Satan on the attack so much this year.”
Tell me about it. We’re dealing with a situation right now that I wished I could share with you all. I could really use some advice, but there is too much of a chance that someone who knows I hang out here could figure out who the other’s involved are.
Chas, I wish I’d gotten that lesson in school!! I really wish they’d teach financial responsibility in high school. At least kids would be warned.
KIMBERLEY: I hope you see this. I got your email, wrote a nice response using “reply” and Yahoo sent back a message that your email doesn’t work. I can’t figure that one out, considering yours got to me in the first place. I’d like you to read my entire response, but the short answer is no, we’ve been down this road with the Nazis. I figure if they said we were German, it must be so. I’m first generation American. In any event, I’d like to send you the full response, because there’s a more involved answer there, so if you have another email address…..
KBells, I will pray anyhow.
I made a couple of typo’s above, but the figures come out right.
Thank you, Chas.
Samuel–how about an iced coffee on this beautiful day? Or maybe a root beer float–now that sounds good!
It’s too late to Rant, but:
I’ve been out planting flowers, like I was told to. But while out there, I noticed there were no honeybees at all. I counted five, what we call bumblebees, but no honeybees.
Something mighty strange about that. Those bees ought to be all over the azaleas and dogwood.
Rush often ridicules what he calls “alarmists”. But I’ll tell you now.
Something ain’t right.
Chas,
Honeybees are so scarce because of the bug that is killing them, that one of the biggest new crimes is the theft of bee hives. It is alarming since the world’s fauna including us is nearly totally dependent on these little bees. But there are other flying insects that also do a good job of pollinating.
You are correct. Something ain’t right, hopefulluy Ossama or OIbama isn’t behind it all
Just in from painting the new chicken coop on a beautiful sunshiney day and you are right, no honeybees. Though yesterday’s snowfall may have something to do with it, I only saw a few last year. The bee keepers that made it safely through the recent fungus problem were aghast to find a new killer out there this past year. Not sure what it is but a lot of loss in bee country.
There are few things in the world that smell as sweet as a citrus grove in bloom. If you have not ever experienced it - you need to do so before you die it is that great. Normally there are thousands of bees everywhere when they are in bloom I noticed last year that there were few bees. I was worried that my citrus crop would fail but it turned out to be one of the best crops produced in 20 year. Why I do not know.
Llama,
Definitely agree on the smell of citrus blossoms. (Honeysuckle comes close, same idea, but not as good.) When I visited Phoenix one time after I had moved away, and the air was full of it, I made a mental note to return during the same season another time, on purpose. If I had to choose between chocolate, vanilla, and orange blossoms as a favorite smell, it would be a hard decision.
Jasmine is wonderful too.
Maybe all the honeybees have moved here. We are constantly having to get them out of places where we don’t want them and a couple of times this year there have been swarms in the market place. They like the big tree in the center of the market area behind the mosque. However, swarms of bees and swarms of people aren’t a good combination.
Not long ago there was a post about how you could have bought $100,000 of Apple stock 10 years ago and it would have been worth $1.98 Million today. It pays to be able to pick’em doesn’t it? But when you pick’em is way more important. If you would have picked Apple fp0r the 10 years before April 1998 you would have lost about 40% of your $100,000 investment and been considered an idiot.
But to bring you up to date on Apple, if you would have bought it 5 years ago, instead of 10 years ago, you would have $2.44 million. So the only time to own Apple was the last 5 years.
The 15 years before then an investment in Apple would have lost money or been dead money and only very stupid people would have owned Apple stock. The Art of Low Risk Investing will keep you from ever investing in a stock like Apple and not make any money for 15 years but it will also get you in Apple for the last 5 years when Apple had momentum. Momentum is one of the two things you have to know well in order to make money in the stock market.
Momentum can be your best or worst friend. Never bet against momentum when it is in play and never bet on anything when it has no momentum or the potential energy to create it.
In contrast to picking the darling of the NADAQ over the last 5 years, one must remember that the darling of the Emerging Markets would make Apple look it was in the slow lane these last 5 years.
You could easily have invested in a basket of Emerging Market EFT’s and mutual funds over the last 5 years like EWZ, FLATX, ILF, EWW, ADRE, EEM or some really good ones the last year or two like UUPIX (or UVPIX when the market was retreating and it was time to be short) and without having to pick the one darling to be lucky. You would have returned an average of 100% a year profit and your 100,000 investment would be worth $600,000 today with this basket of EM’s. The same $100K investment for the same 5 years in the S&P 500 mutual fund or EFT would only be worth $161,000.
Just think what you could make, with much less risk, if you used calls and puts instead of owning the ETF itself?
Rather hoping to make a killing in 5 years on Apple, TALRI only tries to make a tiny 100% a year with the absolute least amount of risk possible. No sense being greedy I say
But, I did get a kick pout of the original post. You can’t but love well meaning amateurs - even if they get it all wrong.
Victoria,
In case you’re not still checking the National Day of Prayer thread, I did answer your question over there. (Basically yes, we do pray in the name of Jesus, but there’s more to it than that.)
The gardener came back just now, to check on last Tuesdays plantings. He arrived just in time to scare off a rabbit that was digging in the old barrel by the front steps [in which he had planted daisies and begonias]. The rabbit had pulled out about 4 of the begonias and dug a deep hole. As I was planning to water there a little later in the day [less sun], I would never have known what had happened to it. The barrel is right next to the front steps and too heavy to move, so now I’m trying to figure out how to keep the rabbit out of it. Any tips from any of you experienced gardeners?
Kayvee,
Random and Lynn have guns but neither are here right now. Chicken wire? Not pretty but neither are torn up begonias.
A product called “Repel”? Someone mentioned it to me as something to try as I have problems with something digging up and destroying my bulbs.
She was an elderly lady who does a lot of gardening and told me she’s had success with it for lots of problems - including deer eating her blueberry bushes.
Worth a try I suppose!
Cayenne pepper.
Another suggestion: we got a rat terrier for our mouse/vole problem. Now that he has pretty much eradicated all of them within a fair radius of the house, he has moved on to pheasants. A rabbit would be no problem I think. Of course, he also has a tendency to dig up the flowers in search of the mice and voles. But hopefully, between the mouse devourer and the lawn mower, we will have fewer rattlesnakes for the kids to deal with this summer.
Another beautiful day in the neighborhood, sun is shining red tulips are open. A glorious day to rest and relax and think of the things the Lord has done.
On another note, for those praying for us. Hubby has decided to accept a job with the Vancouver Olympics, taking him away from us for the next two years. It had been our plan for the adoption to be completed so the kids could get passports and we could all go, but with the social workers working at lightning speed, we were told once again that the kids’ worker has just started the paperwork. Again, it should be several months before completion.
This will be tough on the kids as they absolutely adore their daddy and he they. He is also their chauffer taking them to all events far and near. That, too, will change as I don’t do chauffer. But we will adjust as we always have. We do need to keep our eyes on the Lord. Thanks for praying.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I’ll have to say a reluctant “no” to the rat terrier, as I can’t have a dog anymore, and a gun would just leave me with a mess o’ rabbit
but the others all sound feasible. I’ll try Momoffour’s suggestion of cayenne pepper first, as I have some in the cupboard. If that doesn’t do it, I’ll head to the store for some chicken wire and/or “Repel.” I was thinking last night of putting some kind of small fence around the top of the barrel [like a mini picket fence or something]. If I could find such a thing, it might do the job and still be attractive.
Chas, do you have robins yet? The last couple of days we have had a rain, then ice, then snow storm. Our yard was under a lot of water, but is sheltered a bit from the wind because of all the trees my husband has planted. Apparently, it is the shelter in the storm for the birds. The remaining crabapples are good food too, as are the sunflower seeds in the feeder. We have had dozens and dozens of birds, including several dozen robins. They have dug so much in one of my gardens that the sidewalk next to it is almost covered in garden soil.
Many kept running into my windows and we found two dead ones by our garage door this morning. I think one of the neighborhood cats put them aside for an evening snack. I don’t believe I have ever seen quite this many birds at one time here. It has been quite fascinating.
I haven’t seen many robins at all. The hummingbirds are back.
Hafta go. We voted on a new pastor today. I think we’re going to call him. He seems like a good guy, except he’s from Clemson!
I liked the previous pastor too. But he was from Tennessee. Almost as bad.
I’m surrounded here. Lots of UNC, NC State, Duke and Clemson people here. But only Clemson is an adversary. The Gamecocks will open their football season against the Wolfpack this year.
Our hummingbirds don’t usually come back until mid-May, but as cold as it is, they would be smarter to stay away for awhile longer.
We’ve been covered over with robins here in Louisville for more than a month–they love it, even though we’ve had a cold snap or two. No hummingbirds, but I don’t have a feeder to attract them.
Mumsee,
I’ll be praying for you. Oh, I wish it could be different, and I hope the adoption will be finalized fairly quickly–much better for all of you!
Mumsee, I’ll echo what Cheryl D said. Praying for you.
Cheryl D and MMacMurray,
Thanks for praying. It shall be “challenging” but not beyond ability. I am probably in a state of mourning right now as I find myself crying over it throughout the day, but we will be okay. It probably is in the best interest of the kids so we can get beyond subflooring to actual covered floors! Hopefully, this will get the SW moving and won’t be the Russian Olympics before she gets beyond “just submitting the paperwork”.
Mumsee - This seems like a very difficult situation you are facing; I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes!
Is there any possibility of you and the children joining your husband after all the paperwork is completed?
#30: Poor Chas, you need lots of UGA fans just to improve those terrible conditions…
VS,
With the prayer support of people like you (and occasional words of encouragement), and the physical help of the local church, we will be okay. God knows what He is doing and will give the needed tools to accomplish His goals. Yes, when the paperwork is done and passports are obtained, we will be spending as much time as possible over there.