Understanding

I have understood nothing of what I have read so I have to go back and read it all over again.
(Frederick Buechner, Listening To Your Life, p. 276)

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We went to the thrift store yesterday. I was looking for one more 2015 calendar. I found two and didn't like either. They were offering a 40% discount with their VIP card. I looked at the CDs twice and found six in like-new condition that I bought for $1.19 each. Three are Bluegrass. Mickey Basil, a cousin of Kathy Lee Gifford, plays piano and sings in the Annapolis, MD area. Mickey played piano at one of Wayne Taylor's Bluegrass concerts in Crofton, MD.

1. Gene Pitney - 20 Greatest Hits
2. The Bluegrass 45 - Once Again From Kobe, Japan
3. Claire Lynch - Friends For A Lifetime
4. Claire Lynch - Crowd Favorites
5. Mickey Basil - Live at Sam's Waterfront Cafe
6. Trisha Yearwood - Where Your Road Leads

Dick Henthorn

12 December 2014

Celebration

Norfolk, VA

Photo by Mr. Dickie

Every day should be a cause for celebration. By celebrating the gift of life, you protect your heart from the dangers of pessimism, regret, hopelessness and bitterness.
(100 Days Of Prayer For Women, p.203)

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The other day we went to the double thrift store on New Hampshire Avenue.  CDs at both stores were priced at $1.91.  I didn't discover until I got to the checkout that the second place had a sale, "buy four and get one free." I hope I didn't buy any duplicates.

I bought:

1. Corel Gallery Magic (2 disc of images)
2. Mary Chapin Carpenter - Party Doll
3. K.D. Lang - Invincible Summer
4. Patty Loveless - Dreamin' My Dreams
5. Washington National Cathedral - Centennial Celebration
6. Brooks & Dunn - The Greatest Hits Collection II
7. Brooks & Dunn - Hillbilly Deluxe
8. Nickel Creek - Why Should The Fire Die?
9. Chely Wright - The Metropolitan Hotel

I also remembered to download my weekly free music allotment from the county library Freegal service.  This time I selected Johnny Rodriguez - Desperado, A Decade of Hits.

I'm in music lovers heaven.

Mr. Dickie

15 September 2014

What Do You Think?

We seem to be thinking hard all the time, but it is mostly about our troubles, and who's to blame for them. (One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 26 July) 23 September 2012

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I'm working on a project to create just over forty PDF files from the posts on a blog.  I used the Print Friendly application to create the PDFs.  There's a free online application, Merge PDF, that will merge all of the PDFs into one PDF which I can easily print or share.  My testing  yesterday seemed to confirm that everything will work together.

Yesterday (22 Sep 2012) we went to a PTA booksale in Hyattsville, MD.  They priced the CDs at 50 cents each.  It's hard to resist when you can buy them at that price.  I bought thirteen and arrived home with fourteen because one was a two CD set.  Here's the list of my treasures.

1. Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way
2. Emmy Lou Harris - Cowgirl's Prayer
3. Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia - Friday Night in San Francisco
4. Alan Jackson - High Mileage
5. Seattle Symphony - Howard Hanson Symphonies No. 3 & No. 6
6. Nanci Griffith - Other Voices | Other Rooms
7. Mark O'Connor - The New Nashville Cats
8. Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio - Live In New York
9. Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio - In Full Swing
10. k.d. lang - Live By Request
11. Essential Blues - House of Blues (2)
12. Various Artists - American Fiddle Tunes (Library of Congress)
13. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer - Changing Your Thoughts Meditation

On Wednesday (19 Sep 2012) we went to the double thrift store on New Hampshire Ave.  There were some good CDs there too.  I bought five.

1. Richard Clayderman - All By Myself (2)
2. John Gary - The Very Best Of
3. Chuck Mangione - Chase The Clouds Away
4. Phil Vassar - Phil Vassar
5. Ronnie McCoury - Heartbreak Town

Mr. Dickie

23 September 2012

Strathmore

Do all the good you can, and make as little fuss about it as possible. (Charles Dickens in The Little Book of Virtues, 4 February)

******

Yesterday we picked Cyndi up after work. During the afternoon she was at a meeting in Frederick, MD. After the meeting she got on the Red Line of the subway at Shady Grove station and rode the train for four stops to the Grosvenor-Strathmore station which is just outside of the Beltway. We met her in the Kiss and Ride area. We used our cellphones to talk to each other after she got off the train. This was the first time any of us had been to this station. I'm interested in this station because the relatively new Strathmore auditorium is across the street. I think I would like to get tickets to attend a musical presentation there. I believe it would be easy to take the Red and Orange subway lines to the event.

Books were on sale for half-price yesterday at the thrift store. I bought three: Black Pearls by Eric V. Copage; The Little Book of Virtues and Wisdom of the Ages by Dr. Wayne Dyer. I have a hunch that I'll find some good quotations in all of them.

Mr. Dickie
12/Feb/2011 8:06

New Books

The world is full of amateur tailors trying to make us fit into their patterns, even if they have to squeeze and push us into them. (Sortor and McQuade, The Word On Life, 8 November)

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Yesterday we went to the 50% off sale at the thrift store. I had a very good day in the book section. I bought seven books with a retail value of $70.78 for $4.28: Conversational Italian; Helen Steiner Rice - A Collection of Blessings; Earnie Larsen and Carol Hegarty - Believing in Myself; Perennials; Edwin B. Williams - Spanish and English Dictionary; Karen Nitkin - Fun With the Family Maryland; Les Krantz and Tim Knight - The Book of Books.

I made post number 1,700 to my Arrow Prayers blog today.

In the evening I watched Conan O'Brian for the first time since he returned to television on the cable channel TBS. He still isn't funny. I guess I just don't get it.

Mr. Dickie
12/Nov/2010 7:46

Thriftstore Shopping

The tragedy of life is that people who hold different views very often finish up disliking not each others' views, but each other. It should be possible to differ with a man and yet remain friends. (William Barclay, the Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians, p. 48)

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On Monday we went to the 25% Off Sale at the thrift store. I found a book about creating webpages by Laura Lemay. Part of the book was about Style Sheets which interests me. Much to my dismay the price, written in grease pencil, had been rubbed off. I took the book to the area where they price the merchandise knowing full-well that they wouldn't price the book for me. Late yesterday I went back to the store to see if I could find the book. As I entered the store I was encouraged because there was a small sign by the door announcing that books and CDs were 50% off. I didn't find the book.

I bought five CDs and four books. The CDs I bought were: Santana - Supernatural (71 cents); Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 and Te Deum (71 cents); Tammy Wynette - The Best Of (40 cents); Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (40 cents); Brahms and Schumann - Symphonies No. 1 (40 cents).

The four books I purchased were: Rick Steves - Italian - Phrase Book and Dictionary (40 cents), I needed this because I want to be able to read the Facebook postings of the Dalu family in Italy; William P. Young - The Shack (40 cents), I bought this one to replace a copy I gave to someone else before I read it; Mike Magee - The Book of Choices (71 cents); Thomas Kinkaide (71 cents), I may already have a copy of this one, my memory failed me.

While at the thrift store I dropped off three donation items that should have left our house long ago.

Mr. Dickie
27/Oct/2010 8:22

If Things Are Not Working

If things are not working, ask yourself, "In what way am I creating this? In what way can I change? What is the lesson? (Dr. Wayne Dyer, Staying On The Path, p. 60)

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Melva was off work yesterday. She had someone else fill in for her. She went to the shop anyway because she had one appointment with a new customer at 5:00 p.m. I went along. I visited the Crofton library. I checked out ten CDs. I hadn't been to that library in several months. We went to supper at Bob Evans after Melva finished. They must have been short-staffed in the kitchen. Melva noticed that folks all around us were calling for the manager.

In the morning we went to the 25% off sale at the nearby thrift shop. I had a good day. I bought a plastic wastebasket to replace the broken one under my paper shredder. VHS tapes were selling for 30 cents each. I bought the first two Harry Potter movies and the two-tape Doctor Zhivago. I paid $1.43 for a Bluegrass CD by Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver - My Heart Is Yours. I heard this band sing once at a free Library of Congress concert that had to be held indoors because of rain. I've been looking for a copy of the 2009 issue of Daily Guideposts. I found a like-new copy for $1.06. I think I have every year except 2010. I'm reading from three copies this year. I have read all of the others in my collection. I'll probably save the 2009 book to read in 2011.

At mid-day I attended the twice-monthly computer club meeting. Two employees of Verizon FIOS were the guest speakers. They were both managers and very quickly got into trouble with technical questions and comments. The "top dog" started looking at his watch and the wall clock and finally "bailed" about 2:00 p.m. They were lucky that more of the engineers in the club didn't ask them questions. I felt sorry for them because I know it's difficult to speak in front of a group.

My Google blog posts no longer automatically feed to Facebook "notes" every day. A few days ago three postings arrived on the same day. The following day the posting didn't get picked up. I don't control what happens, so there is nothing I can do about it.

Mr. Dickie
21/May/2010 8:57

Keep Walking

If enough of us shied away from conflict and confrontation, just imagine how much war we could eliminate. (Wayne Dyer, Staying on the Path, p. 18)

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Melva and I went to the Langley Park thrift store yesterday. I forgot to take the 25% discount card into store. While Melva shopped I went back to the van to get the card. The amount of stuff being donated to these stores boggles the mind.

I'm working on an Email address file that can be viewed with my free CSVed program. Yesterday I added another field to each record because I want to keep track of the "group" a person belongs in. The reason I created my own file is to insure that I won't lose the information if something happens to my computer or to Google or AOL. I'll keep backup copies of the file elsewhere.

Yesterday I took a 35-minute walk in the neighborhood. I listened to music on my Oasis MP3/WMA player while I walked. Lately I've noticed a younger man out walking. He walks at a much faster pace than I do. It's unusual to see anyone else taking a walk in "the hood."

Mr. Dickie
14/May/2010 9:13

Flashing Light

We are small and insignificant, but our society tells us we are mighty and important. As we learn more about the intricacies of God's creation may we respond honorably and respectively. (Pamela J. Crosby, in The Upper Room Disciplines - 2006, 17 October)

Any departure from accepted traditions and customs requires a large and serious effort, but true understanding of new things always requires such an effort. (Anonymous in A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 12 October)

I do not need to have and do what everyone else has and does, but I can recognize my desires and preferences and satisfy them when doing so does not injure [myself] or anyone else. (Food For Thought, 11 October)

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We went grocery shopping yesterday. We used two carts. I took the list and went ahead while Melva shopped in the produce and deli areas. I'm able to finish all of the other shopping in the time it takes her to select the items she wants from those two areas. At the end I noticed that the amount of items we put in the car is less and less while the amount we spend continues to go increase. It's hard to imagine that the country has fallen on hard times when prices continue to rise and bonuses continue to be paid.

We also went to the thrift store yesterday. I had an incident while we were there. I selected several CDs that I was interested in purchasing. I've learned to always take them out of the case to examine the playing side. Maybe this isn't such a good idea after all. When I turn the disc upside down I usually moved it back and forth to catch the light while I look for scratches. As usual, I did what I always do. Afterwards I went to the back of the store to look at the books. When I got there I noticed that I was having vision problems. From past experience I knew I was going to get a migraine headache. I'd selected one book to purchase when this happened. Before we left the store I realized what I'd done. When I caught the light with the CD I flashed it directly into my eyes. That's what set off the migraine. Oh, by the way, when we got home I somehow didn't have the book I thought I was going to buy.

My friend, Betty Cronin, shared two letters written in November 1980 and February 1981 by Dorothy (Rankin) Gay of Norman, OK. Mrs. Gay got into the DAR based on her Yoho ancestry. I looked in my old Yoho file on the desktop computer and found where her family belonged. She wasn't in the file. Then I looked on the Internet and found some information about her family, including a brief biography of her husband. I combined these two pieces of information with what I found in the letter and produced a descendant chart that I posted to my genealogy "News" blog. I hadn't done any genealogy work like this in a long time.

One of the CDs I bought for $1.06 at the thrift contains 3,500, not very good, JPEG photos. There are no use restictions and I didn't have to install any programs to read the photo files themselves. I'm going to experiment with some of the shots to see if I can increase the exposure to improve the image quality.

Mr. Dickie