Monday, December 18, 2006


Update....

The radio reports that some areas of town have "low pressure". We have zip, ZERO, none, NADA and haven't for over 24 hours now. I bought two cases of drinking water. I found two 5 gal containers and went to visit a friend and fill them up. Of COURSE.....5 gal tipped over in the van on the way home and now I need to clean THAT up. ::snort:: I stopped at a water kiosk to refill it...not sure why I didn't think of THAT to begin with! Not to be gross but it took almost 5 gal to flush ONE toilet..... ::gag:: This so reminds me of hauling water up the stairs to the toilets in that one house in the Philippines, Mom. ::snort:: BUT THEN I WAS THE KID and it was a GRAND ADVENTURE!!!! I'm trying to keep this all upbeat...but honestly....I'm a bit worried that it's going to be harder to find water....because the radio is saying it will take 3 - 5 days to fix this.....that's a long time. I would take LOW pressure....


We thought we'd go shopping, out to eat and a movie and the water would be back on. We went shopping....all the stores had restrooms that were closed with signs. All the eating spots were closed. Most the restaurants on this side of town are closed....in fact at this point I'd say all...earlier today it was GROSS...for instance Red Lobster would be closed and across the street another one would be full....well...ummm...no water....yuck! As I said, driving home, they all had empty parking lots. The health inspector was visiting restaurants this afternoon. This will hurt businesses. I know that for Chick-fil-A this is the busiest week of the year. They're closed. Josiah got time off - that's nice. We stopped at the theater and it was closed too - no water.

I planned to bake bread and muffins today - but that didn't work.....tomorrow I'll have to go buy some "finger type" food to go with our produce...

I did figure out where to go for showers. Adrienne offered...but I have some children who think the idea of showers at a friends house is terribly invasive....I don't get that...but then I AM a missionary kid. LOL I haven't gone to the base gym because they are so picky about minors at the gym...but I'll have to figure something out for the morning....I'm thinking I'll go out to the lake....they have a campground there and showers.....now don't all ya locals go out and use all the water before we get there. ::snort::
Late-breaking news....

Delusional - constipated large family seen storming city hall.....

Several of the children were heard to be chanting, "They have TOILETS in there" and "send the toilets out and no one will get hurt."

The wild-eyed mother was heard muttering, "THIS never happened when REPUBLICANS controlled congress!!!!"

The family is demanding that their city be declared a disaster zone and the national guard bring flush toilets back to town.... When asked where the head of the family may be the delusional woman began to cackle, and insist that he lives in a 2000 mile litter box.... Mental health experts have determined that something has pushed this family over the edge...they seem pre-occupied with litter facilities of all types...what else would explain the comment???

Please - if you are the husband of this woman contact the authorities. Truly something will need to be done about this tragic stand-off soon.

Stay tuned.

OK folks - it's a JOKE - don't call the authorities.......muhahahahahaha
I HAVE NO WATER!!!!

Yesterday a.m. our pressure was weak! Last night we noticed that we had no filtered water....this a.m.we have NO water - NONE.

Front page in our paper said that this was a problem that may take several days to fix but that they were going to have "low pressure" to all homes by 10 p.m. I think something went wrong.

Heather - do you have water???? Now - what???? I guess I'll call.....becuase there is nothing.

Funny that my first thought was "My pipes froze" but then I realized it's WARM - they couldn't have frozen.
RED SHIRTS

Just an addendum....Our RE coordinator said she told the kids last week that they needed red or green shirts. I can't believe, with as many as I have in the RE program, that at I did NOT receive the message at LEAST once. I'm usually told every bit of need to know info about 6 times. ::snort:: I'm wondering if it was said early in the morning and we were late (gasp - it has happened once or twice ::snort::).

Anyway, I told Debbie (RE Coordinator) that I had had to run out for red shirts and she felt bad. I told her not to worry - that it had been fun. We bought a "Brutus" t-shirt - from the old Popeye show. Josiah was at work. I told the boys to hide the polo shirt and tell Cy the t-shirt is what I bought for him to wear.

Early Sunday a.m. he staggers out and says, "Mom, is this the shirt you bought for me?" With a straight face, I replied, "Yes." He said, "Oooookay".....I clued him in. What a hoot! He said he thought, "Well this is a bit casual - but *I* don't care!". ::snort::

I really didn't mind being able to play a joke on one of the children. LOL
~12 Days of Christmas ~

Would anyone from a tradition that celebrates Epiphany or the 12 Days of Christmas care to share how they do this? Why it is meaningful to their family? As mentioned earlier, one of the devotionals I bought contains readings for these 12 days and they seem like a good way to gradually come down from the fun of nightly Advent readings. They also seem meaningful.

I bought a book called *The 12 Days of Christmas* - while at Amazon to buy it I read the reviews. Goodness, there is one man there who has commented negatively on just about any book on children's Christmas symbols that are currently popular. {G} This led me to snopes - which backs up this mans claim that basically the stories of the chatecism being taught through the song the 12 days of Christmas is bunk.....and the Candy cane legend is bunk...as are the trees, ornaments... all that we've been learning this month. ::snort:: This was bothering me until I realized that there is nothing wrong with taking a secular emblem and finding religious significance in it...shoot the reverse happens all the time. Witness the transformation of the rainbow from a religious symbol of God's promise not to destroy the earth with flood again....a symbol that God keeps his promises/covenants...to a secular symbol of diversity and gay pride. In other words - we can STILL teach our children great truth from the secular symbols...regardless of whether they were originally intended that way. I'm not saying we should ignore history, or teach falsehoods to our children. For instance I can say, "Some people see the white and red in a candy cane standing for purity and Christ's blood. Isn't it cool that it's in the shape of a J?" I can present these things, my children can make the connections - there is nothing wrong with this in my view. I won't say "These were MADE to show this" because that may be a legend...but I will read the Legend of the Candy Cane to my children with a clear conscience. LOL

Thoughts?

*The Alpine Recluse by Mary Daheim*

I much prefer the Bed and Breakfast series by this author to this series. This is the Emma Lord series. Emma is a journalist in a small town in the Pacific NW - Alpine, WA.

Emma had an affair with a married man, who wouldn't leave his wife, and raised her son alone. Her son is now a priest. This is central to the character development of Emma. She's an independent, strong, female who can handle life without the aide of a man - though she tends to have had several relationships anyway throughout the series.

Being, born in the Pacific NW, I do enjoy the "touch of home" in a Mary Daheim novel. Vida Runkle has to be one of my favorite characters in fiction. This book did keep me guessing. It isn't often that I choose the wrong murder in these books...but I did. LOL

I didn't realize the pattern in this series until hit *The Alpine Fury*. Ah, alphabetical....so I'm assured at least another 8 novels in this series. ::snort::