Polluting

Photo taken prior to 20 Mar 2015

Fred & Bobbie's House in White, Jim's House in Yellow

Photo by Melva

It may be difficult to heal our bodies and minds after years of polluting ourselves with chemicals and negative thinking, but we do have that ability.
(Perry Tilleraas, The Color Of Light, 3 June)

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I heard that later today we could expect Spring to arrive.  There is some confusion.  This morning when I looked outside for the first time snow was falling.  At 3:00 p.m. it is no longer snowing but the roof of the house across the street is snow covered.

Mr. Dickie

20 March 2015

Humility

Humility is the source of all true greatness: pride is ever impatient, ready to be offended. He who thinks nothing is due to him, never thinks himself ill-treated. (Fenelon in Chapter-By-Chapter Bible Commentary, by Warren W. Wiersbe, p. 276)

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Last night Melva drove home from work with ice freezing on the car and windshield. During the night some snow fell on top of the frozen rain and sleet. Today the federal government granted liberal leave, the county schools closed. Cyndi was ready to go to the subway earlier than usual. I was doing my morning reading and didn't go out to warm up the minivan. I decided to use Melva's car because it was under the carport. Traffic was light going down the hill and coming back up. The road surface of the hill was a little slipper. Route 450 was clear. The temperature is supposed to warm by noon. I decided to just let the sun melt the ice off the minivan. Melva has a work meeting at 11:00 a.m. She shouldn't have any trouble getting there.

I'm posting some of my descendant charts in the HTML format to MyBox where I can share them with folks I know. Yesterday I posted eleven obituaries to my obituary blog. There are about another thirty-six in the set I found.

Mr. Dickie
22/Feb/2011 8:33

Snow Day

Life isn't as serious as my mind makes it out to be. (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, p. 33)

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We are grateful to Jose and his friend, who came from Riverdale early this morning to clear the snow from the driveway and the sidewalk. Jose and another friend had promised to return when they were here doing yardwork last fall. Once our driveway was clear it was a piece of cake to take Cyndi to the subway. Her work place opened two hours late as did the federal government.

Mr. Dickie
27/Jan/2011 10:27

What Do I Care?

(Photo: Happy Hour in Nebraska - shared by my cousin, Fran)

If you want to spend an exhausting day, try to work out your circumstances leaning on your "human viewpoint." (Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom For The Way, p. 376)

******

Yesterday we got lucky and only received a small amount of snow. This morning there are high winds. It feels like winter, but people should still be able to move about if they need to be out and about. What do I care? I've got my love to keep me warm.

Mr. Dickie
27/Dec/2010 9:02

Philippians 4:11

I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. (Philippians 4:11 in Grace For The Moment by Max Lucado, 9 December)

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I didn't post to my blogs for the last two days. On Wednesday I attended four Christmas events at the Library of Congress. Yesterday I went to lunch with former co-worker, Bill Hamilton.

There is a rumor that Yahoo intends to drop support for their social bookmarking site, Delicious. I am a user of this application. I suppose that many other free Internet services will be shutting down in the months ahead. When there is a strong possibility of marked reductions in spending for advertising it is inevitable that any endeavor that relies on advertising for revenue is going to fail.

It snowed yesterday during the day. Melva and I were out driving in the snow going to luncheon engagements. Driving was tricky. We both managed to make our trips without incident. On our way to Bowie we noticed several accidents on the in-bound lanes of U.S. Route 50.

Mr. Dickie
17/Dec/2010 7:37

Resentment

Anytime you're filled with resentment, you're turning the controls of your emotional life over to others to manipulate. (Dr. Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, p. 103)

Your resentments literally send God out of your life while you're being offended. (Dr. Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, p. 112)

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More snow and high winds are predicted. There's still lots of unmelted snow on top of the bushes. The damage to the brittle azaleas will be severe even if no more snow falls.

For no particular reason I have been working on the genealogy of a family just to see what I can put together. My sources are: 1) a book of biographical and genealogical sketches, 2) two descendant charts from an Internet website, and 3) the 1880 census book that I own. I used the source citation feature of RootsMagic for the first time. The RootsMagic PDF document, with name index, for the family is twenty-five pages. Now I need to decide whether to share the work with others.

Mr. Dickie
25/Feb/2010 9:34

Power Point Viewer

Don't listen to the whines of those who have settled for a second-rate life and want you to do the same so they won't feel guilty. (Max Lucado, Grace For The Moment, 13 February)

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There's damage to the gutter on the back of the house behind us. The snow and ice from the roof curled over the edge of the roof and gutter like a window valance. For several days the curtain of ice and snow has remained on the house without falling.

Did you know that Microsoft makes a free PowerPoint Viewer available for download? This might come in handy if friends and relatives often send you PowerPoint files and you don't have a way to view them.

For a couple of days I have been busy working on posting updates to the computer club website. Registration for the next series of computer club classes is set start on Tuesday the 23rd. I also uploaded a set of slides from a member's Video Capture presentation given on the 18th.

Mr. Dickie
20/Feb/2010 10:48

Our Want To Do

Do not say, "If I had so and so;" you have not so and so, but we can always do what we want to do if our want to do it is sufficient. (Oswald Chambers, Prayer A Holy Occupation, p. 50)

... a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone. (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p. 106)

******

Yesterday I didn't post anything to my blogs. For the last several days Facebook hasn't picked up my Google blogs to post to the FB notes.

I went to the computer club meeting. Bob gave an interesting talk about how to capture and convert video from the Internet. His PowerPoint slide show was very professional and impressive.

I removed some of the snow from the large azalea near the front porch. I'm afraid it will no longer be large in the spring. It looks like the weight of the snow did a lot of damage. When I was younger and in better health I probably would have removed the snow at the same time we cleaned the driveway and sidewalk. The cherry trees around the Tidal Basin were damaged by the weight of the snow.

Mr. Dickie
19/Feb/2010 9:23

Special Books

Special books have a place of honor on my library table. (Fay Angus, Daily Guideposts - 2008, 23 January)

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Yesterday I made a trip to the library to return two books that I couldn't renew on the phone. I was surprised to discover that the curb lanes on Riverdale Road, one of the main roads in our area, still were blocked with snow. I don't see how they can expect to bus the children to school when even the main roads still aren't clear.

I went to the hardware store to return the light fixture I need to replace in the basement. This hardware store is small, one where you can usually get some good free advice. The clerk who helped me knew less about the fixture than I did. I asked him if I could punch out the two holes that were 2 3/4 inches apart. He didn't know. I didn't want to drive around shopping because of the poor driving conditions. The clerk offered to punch out the holes and I agreed. It worked. About ten minutes after I got home I had the fixture installed. Then I worked on the next problem, fixing the cable TV display. It broke when I turned off the power to install the fixture. You have to unplug the cable set-top box for about ten minutes to get the display working.

Mr. Dickie
17/Feb/2010 9:00

Fighting Evil

When you fight evil by employing the methods of hatred and violence, you are part of the hatred and violence of evil itself, despite the rightness of your position in your own mind. (Dr. Wayne Dyer, Real Magic, p. 51-52)

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We got very lucky yesterday. After a brief snow flurry the snow passed to the north of us. Today the federal government started two hour late and the schools in our county remained closed. The sun is shining brightly. That ought to melt more of the snow.

Mr. Dickie
16/Feb/2010 11:20

Meditation

I urge you to demand more and more time for silence in your life. One of the most effective ways to bring this about it to make meditation a daily practice. And remember there's no such thing as a bad meditation. (Dr. Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, p. 55)

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At 5:00 p.m. on Monday the 15th it looked like the snow that was falling at 3:00 p.m. had turned to rain. If we escape another snowfall we are going to be very lucky.

The computer club meets on Thursday. One of the members volunteered to give a talk about how to capture videos from the Internet. We didn't have a scheduled program, so this is a piece of good luck. I just posted the information to the Meeting Schedule page on the club's website.

Mr. Dickie
15/Feb/2010 17:03

Snowed Under

All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p. 12)

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We made a trip to the drugstore and the nearby hardware store yesterday. We decided to park across the street in the church parking lot and walk to the stores because of the condition of the parking lot in front of the stores where we went shopping. There was traffic gridlock on the street in front of the strip mall which is just a few blocks from our house. It's close enough that I often walk to the hardware store in good weather.

More snow is expected on Monday or Tuesday. That will surely shut down the entire city again. Clearing the snow from the highway that runs in front of the little mall where we shopped is the responsibility of the state of Maryland. As of yesterday they had yet to clear the show from all lanes. In front of the gas station, at the corner where we turn into our development, there is a pile of snow over six feet tall sitting in the right hand lane.

Before 8:00 a.m. this morning I heard a large diesel snowplow from the county in front of our house. At first I thought he was going to push the remaining snow back to the curb. After about fifteen minutes he went up 76th Avenue past our house hrowing salt and chemicals out the back of the truck onto the bare pavement. I'm afraid he didn't do anything to clear another lane. This is going to make it impossible for folks to park on the flat part of the street at the top of the hill before the next snowfall.

The derailment on the subway is being blamed on operator error. They say the operator ran a red light going north out of the Farragut North station. Then the system diverted the train onto a siding, called a pocket track, and automatically derailed the train when the operator didn't take action to stop the train. I think this is the first time they have revealed that they have a way to derail a train. They didn't explain how this works. If the trains are run by computer wouldn't it make more sense to apply the breaks and stop the train, rather than apply a derailer and derail a train? Good grief!

Mr. Dickie
14/Feb/2010 8:17

Snow Policy

Satisfaction comes when we ... say, "This is enough. What I have will do. ..." (Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom For The Way, p. 54)

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The county leadership failed to have a policy about where to park cars on the street during the snowfall. People parked on both sides of the street. The snow covered the cars. Then the snowplows piled snow up beside the cars blocking them from getting into the cleared lane after folks removed the snow from the cars. Yesterday the county executive announced the car parking policy. Cars may park on the side of the street with the even numbers. I wonder how they expect people to move their cars from one side of the street to the other when neither side is cleared to the curb. They also stated that people should park their cars in the driveways. Who do they think is going to remove all of the snow from around the cars and the from the driveways in a timely fashion. This morning they announced that they have started to ticket and tow cars (58 so far) that are in violation of the newly announced policy. There will be some folks arrested for "snow rage" before this mess is cleaned up.

We hired two young men to clear our driveway and sidewalk yesterday. It took them about two hours. We were able to get out in the minivan late in the afternoon for a trip to the pharmacy to pick up medications. All lanes of the highway weren't open. Driving was dangerous.

Mr. Dickie
12/Feb/2010 8:16

Do The Right Thing

The most important question to keep before ourselves at all times is this: Do we do the right thing? During this short period of time which we call our life, do our acts conform to the will of the force that sent us into the world? Do we do the right thing? (Anonymous in A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 3 January)

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The snowfall we've experienced so far broke several records. Today, Thursday, will be the fourth day the federal government has been shutdown. That's never happened before. Our county schools already announced that they will remain closed for the entire week. There's really nothing else they can do. In our neighborhood it would be impossible to turn the buses around without getting into difficulties. Also everyone would have to walk in the one lane that is more or less open on the streets.

Yesterday during part of the day there were blizzard conditions with lots of blowing snow and some drifting. Both cars are once again covered with snow, even the one under the carport. Once people start to move around we will try to hire someone to dig us out again.

During one of my infrequent attempts to clean up the mounds of paper around the computer I put the 1870 census of Monroe county, Ohio in a box. I'm working on some projects where I'd like to have that reference available. Yesterday I spent a few minutes looking in the boxes in the basement. I didn't find it. I wonder if the box is in the shed or in the attic. It isn't going to be be easy finding that book.

Mr. Dickie
11/Feb/2010 6:29

Where's My Sled

If you look for what's wrong about ... [someone] and store that negative image in your mind, then that's where your relationship exists. If you change your thoughts to what you love rather than to what you label as wrong, you've just changed your entire relationship. It went from lousy to great ... by changing your mind! (Dr. Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets For Success and Inner Peace, p. 90)

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The schools and federal government are closed for another day. Snow started falling again last night. This morning at 7:00 a.m. it was difficult to see the snowflakes because they were so small. Looking off in the distance the visibility was limited so I knew it was still snowing. There's no sign of the predicted wind yet. Gutters and roofs are in jeopardy. We'll probably face another five or six inches of snow that needs to be cleared from the driveway and sidewalk. The lady next door was out clearing the sidewalk last night.

Mr. Dickie
10/Feb/2010 7:33

We Are Blessed

Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life. If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom you will the one to suffer. (Proverbs 9;11-12)

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We know we are blessed. Our driveway and sidewalk are cleared of the snow. There's one lane open on the street in front of our house. The nearest grocery store, within walking distance, is open and there is bread and milk to buy. Someone must be doing lots of baking because there isn't any sugar. Today the federal government leaders decided to keep the government closed for a second day. Cyndi's work follows the government schedule so she is safe at her apartment for a second day. Parking fees at the county garage where Cyndi left her car have been waived until at least Thursday. Our lights only dimmed once and the furnace is doing it's job. I was able to get a ride to the hardware store yesterday afternoon where I bought a poorly made snow shovel for $25.00 to replace the one that was stolen. I walked home with my new shovel and two containers of milk. At one point while I was walking on the highway a pickup truck of Latinos stopped to ask me where I bought the shovel.

Today we are waiting for the next snow to start falling. Last night they predicted it will start about noon and accumulate another foot or so. If this happens the government will have to close for a week.

Mr. Dickie
9/Feb/2010 8:49

At A Standstill

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Jim's House on 76th Avenue)

Think back on the instructions and correction a parent has given you ... (Josh McDowell's, Youth Devotions, 15 January)

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The city has been brought to a standstill by the snow. The subway system is only operating trains below ground at thirty minute intervals. There is, more or less, no bus service. Many cars on the street are still covered with snow. In our neighborhood some folks are still clearing their driveways and sidewalks and some haven't started. The federal government and our county schools are closed today. I predict they will be closed tomorrow too. More snow is predict for later in the week. Oh my!

I rediscovered the family of Seth Ward of Monroe County, Ohio. He is of interest because he married twice, once to a Dougherty and once to a Drum. I have been working on the genealogy of the families of both wives.

My daughter gave me a set of amplified computer speakers. Did you know you can use them as a docking station with your portable MP3 player or CD player?

Mr. Dickie
8/Feb/2010 8:46

This Experience

What is in this experience that I can use in a beneficial way, even if I don't understand why it is happening right now? (Dr. Wayne Dyer, Real Magic, p. 7)

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As of 8:30 a.m. this morning there isn't much movement outside our front window. There seems to be one lane plowed in the street but no cars are coming up the hill. So far I've seen only one person walk by with a shovel. It's too early to try to hire someone to clean up this mess. Besides clearing the driveway, the sidewalk, the porch and the cars we need to get all of that snow out of the outside basement stairwell. Finding someplace to throw the snow is going to be a big problem. There's lots of money to be made.

I got my little hand-held Memorex tape recording working yesterday. I had to recharge two AA batteries before they worked. I'm planning to use the recorder as external memory when I'm working on some of my genealogy projects. Sometimes while working on one task I discover something else that needs to be done. I intend to make an audio note that I can review later.

Mr. Dickie
7/Feb/2010 8:46

Blizzard of 2010

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Previous snowfall which was still on the ground yesterday.)

Enjoy it all, but never make your happiness or success dependent on an attachment to any thing, any place, and particularly any person. (Dr. Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, p. 16)

******

As of 9:00 a.m. this morning it had been snowing for about nineteen hours. I looked out our ground level basement window and measured the snow. It looked like 19 inches. The front porch is covered with snow that's blocking opening that door. The stairwell to the basement door is full of snow. It's a mess. The wind has picked up with gusts to around 30 mph making it difficult to tell how much snow is falling. It's bad. Once the snow stops it will take several days to dig out. We will have to hire someone to clear the snow. When Melva opened the kitchen door the male cardinal landed on the snow covering the window of the car in the carport. He was only about eight feet away from her waiting for some birdseed or peanuts.

The semi-annual booksale at the library was schedule for today and tomorrow. That's not going to happen. Everyone will just have to stay at home reading one of the books they bought at the last booksale.

Mr. Dickie
6/Feb/2010 9:11

Toyota

Here lies my past
Goodbye I have kissed it;
Thank you kids,
I wouldn't have missed it.
(Ogden Nash in 10 Secrets For Success and Inner Peace by Dr. Wayne Dyer, p. 67)
3/Feb/2010 8:51

******

I got lucky. About 8:45 a.m. a young man came to the door and offered to clear the snow. I decided to live another day and paid him to do the job.

This morning there is a front page article in The Washington Post about the Toyota accelerator problem. Current and former members of the government are suggesting that the problem is related to the electronics that regulate the acceleration process. Now we will all wait while we try to find out who's lying, Toyota or the government. In my opinion the government employees don't have any reason to lie about this problem. Right now millions of people own cars that are probably too dangerous to drive.

Mr. Dickie
3/Feb/2010 8:57