My favorite folks ! :)

31 July 2010

Random bits

I've a new game to which i'm addicted.  Virtual Pilot.  I think i'm learning where some of the cities in Europe happen to be.  Some i miss consistently.  I'd do much better if my memory was better, i can forget things 2 minutes apart.  

I'm old enough that i learned in school some of these cities as belonging to countries that no longer exist, such as Belgrade, Yugoslavia (it is Serbia now).  My highest score has been 28,887 out of a possible 30,000.  However, even when i'm spot-on, it usually shows i'm off by 4-8 miles (and usually more like 12), so i'm landing on some poor farmer's fields or on an autobahn or something. 


I'm walking up the stairs more slowly these days.  No, not due to illness.  Jazz.


When Jazz first joined our family, he mostly wanted to spend time with Mac.  He knew people were good for only 2 things:  Feeding, and playing.  He likes us to play with him almost constantly.  Over time he has discovered that being petted is a good thing too, but he only wants to be petted on his terms, at his time.  He'd prefer me to follow him around the house, bent over, petting him as he walks where he wants to go.  That doesn't happen much!  But he has discovered that walking ahead of me on the stairs works too.  So i've slowed my pace going up the stairs so that he gets a thorough petting before we reach the top.  It is probably good for us both.


I've decided i need to work harder at the gardening.  I was out today and  cut all the suckers around the peach, apple, and (non-fruit) plum trees.  I started to clean out the roses, but got fatigued and came in.  We planted the dwarf tree we got last weekend yesterday, and we planted the one grape (i bought 3) that actually leafed out.  I also planted some mint around the base of the plum tree.  After all the roses are cleaned i need to do the lilacs.  And then i need to clean out all the grass that has come up in our rock border.  Oh, and pick up sticks and twigs for fire starter, too.  Also, a few of the trees have dead branches that need to come off.  We need to start some sort of compost bin, too.


N is the woman who has been coming since R moved.  I've only been having her come twice a month.  We are kind of figuring things out between us.  I'm rather discouraged about food in general right now, so we've not been doing that too much.  But she is a wonderful worker and very efficient with housecleaning.  Over all it is working pretty well.  It would be hard for anyone to follow R for we just "fit together" so well.

She is a worker!  Our back deck looks better than it has since we moved in.  She does a wonderful job not only cleaning the house, but helping me with clutter too, which often overwhelms me.  


We hired N's son to come do some clean up in our yard for us, although i think their whole family worked at it.  Weed abatement is very strict and no weeds are allowed to be bigger than 4 inches high.  I told her getting the weeds cut was my big priority, but that raking would be good, but only if they had time.  Over all it looks pretty good (they came Tuesday when we were away).  

But weed abatement was after us too because we'd never stacked most of that huge pile of wood from last fall.  So we asked if they could come help us with that as well.  We had to separate the wood into what will fit into our woodstove as it is, and what is going to have to be cut.  They came yesterday AM and helped us with that.  It looks good all stacked up, and we have a lot!  I'll have to take some pics soon.


They have 3 kids (and J has a son that is with them some too).  So yesterday N and her husband J with their three kids all came.  After we finished the work, which didn't take too long, we played some.  Duane pulled out a parachute he'd gotten for a good price at a yard sale.  We drifted it up and the kids ran under and out again.  And then we bounced a ball on it, trying to keep it inside.  A beach ball would be best, but we don't have one, so a tennis ball had to do.  We had a lot of fun with it and hope they come back again, not just to work!


I got another one of those ugly president-bashing email, again from the same person.  One of the sentences from this email:  "Our dictator jerk off just keeps on walking all over everyone."  This one is claiming that Mr. Obama is refusing to sign the certificates for the Eagle Scouts.  In about two minutes i found the report on this from Snopes.  It is not true. 


I love the person who is sending me these things very much.  I think, however, i'm ready to send a letter/email to her asking her to take me off of her list to send political things out.  She did learn to send her things out blind cc and also to remove all the names from previous recipients.  (It used to drive me nuts to see 50 or 100 names from many, many previous forwards.)  After one particularly virulent email last summer, i got frustrated and hit "reply all" with the Snopes info showing that it was not true.  I didn't get much static for that (tho i think the person sending it to me did), but a couple of ladies wrote and ripped me up over that.  One asked me "how did you intercept private mail between friends?"  ! ! !  I had to write and explain what sending an email without removing names and without using bcc actually does.  So the person i love learned not to send these things this way.  


I think i'll say that i've not written her about this because i was afraid of offending her, but that i'm being offended at receiving these email which are libelous.  (I always have to look these up.  Slander is spoken, libel is written.)  I'm particularly offended because these things most often are LIES and the person doesn't even bother to check it out before hitting the "forward" button.  

What is happening to Christian charity?  What happened to "Love your enemy and  pray for those who hurt you"?  I'm not saying that we have to stand by all that our gov't is doing.  Not at all.  I'm very unhappy with much that our gov't and elected leaders are doing.  In the coming election i plan to vote based on what our leaders have done, in order to try to change what i don't like.  I'd like to do (what little) i can to bring about change. 

But disagreeing with our president does not justify passing on such hate.  Particularly when it is libel.  Especially when it is a lie.

Now, i appreciate the email i get which informs me that our leaders are getting ready to vote on ______ bill and this is what the bill says and this is how that bill might be interpreted and that it would be a good idea to notify my elected leader of my feelings about such a bill.  That is fact.  That is useful info.  It is something i can act upon.  The email i'm complaining of is nothing but rumor, gossip, and lie.   I don't believe that lying, passing on such a lie, or the hate behind the lie has any place in the life of a person truly seeking to honor God and live in the example of Jesus.  


Sorry.  I'm just getting too much hate email.





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5 comments:

David Edward said...

i will send you some love email, to balance it out. to start with God loves Obama, and he loves You too!

Rosemary said...

I'm glad you played and had some fun (I remember parachute games, lots of fun) and check you out Miss Pilot (hey, even Charles Lindbergh landed in a farmer's field), Jazz is also one very smart kitty - he maximizes petting time!

The only thing I can suggest if you don't feel like confronting the email sender (and I'm always here with free advice) is to just look at the subject line and delete as necessary. Seriously, I have a dear friend who is a serial email forwarder and I'm tired of hearing that Mary Q didn't forward the message and her earlobes fell off - so I just delete. If she asks me if I got it I say, I didn't see it. Which isn't a lie because I didn't see the body of the message (LOL). Trust me, or my earlobes will fall off.

HUGS from MD and thank you for always being so kind with your words on my blog. (it means a lot)

Jessica Renshaw said...

Loved your humor about Virtual Pilot and the cats. I commiserate with your passion against hate mail. When Obama was elected I wrote the 4-5 friends who consistently sent me anti-Obama diatribes and jokes and told them please not to send them to me, that I can't read them to the glory of God; that we are commanded to pray for our leaders, not tear them down, whether we agree with them or not. Every single friend has honored that request. They send personal notes at times but spare me the other. And we're still friends!

Stacey said...

Wow, I feel productive just reading your post! So glad you have some good help. I know it feels great to get things accomplished around the house, inside and out.

I absolutely hate any and all forwarded e-mail. I used to get tons of it, but now my worst and pretty much only offender is my dad. The most annoying thing about it (besides the fact that most of the content is untrue or off-color) is that he never takes the time to send me any personal messages and hardly has time to even call me a few times a year. I don't like that he considers hitting the forward button keeping in touch with his daughter. I always delete the messages without opening them.

Anyway, I feel your pain. :(

Kathryn said...

Appreciate it as always, David. Hope you are enjoying camping. :)

Rosemary! I have so enjoyed your beautiful crafts lately.

I do need to write the person, with love, & let her know i can't accept this any more. I'm pretty sure i've not lost my earlobes yet.

Jessica - i need to follow your example.

Stacey - i don't feel like i've been very productive, just that i have so much that needs to be done. I'm sure you are very productive compared to me.

I so understand the forward stuff from someone you care about. The person sending me this email is someone who has been like a mama to me. But the forwards are about all i get anymore.

About 1 in 30-40 forwards i get are something that is just so cute or so thought-provoking that i think of one or two other people i think would enjoy it, so i send it on to those one or two, not everyone on my list. IF it says something like "If you love Jesus" or whatever "Send this to your 20 best friends in the next 2 minutes" i remove that before sending it on. I usually will add a personal note, too, to let them know i'm thinking of them.

I was surprised that my mama/friend responded to that not too long ago with a note of her own. That happens maybe every 18 months or so. I think it sad that between email & Facebook, most people think friendship is hitting a forward button, or saying "LOL" as a comment. Sigh. We're more connected & less attached.