Walking

Your thoughts are much more important than you may have realized. (Dr. Wayne Dyer, Real Magic, p. 103)

Do you concentrate more on what is wrong with people than on praying that they will be made right with God? (Oswald Chambers, Prayer A Holy Occupation, p. 78)

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Yesterday it was warm enough to go out walking. I walked to the pharmacy and took a one-lap walk in the neighborhood. Others were out too. I was able to get caught up on some of the news. I found out that the winter hasn't been kind to several of our neighbors.

8/Mar/2010 7:54

Begathon

You never solve your problems by blaming other people. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Chapter-by-Chapter Bible Commentary, p. 56)

A spiritual person is comfortable with the idea of having teachers, observers and divine guidance available at any time. (Dr. Wayne Dyer, Real Magic, p. 41)

No one is exempt from failing. ... Fortunately, failure is not fatal. It does not mean you are substandard - only human. What you learn from your failure is what really counts. (The One-Year Mini For Men, 3 March)

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I skipped a day of posting yesterday. We were busy visiting with Cyndi at her apartment. There's renovation going on in the building hallways and inside of her apartment. Things are a mess and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. It's very stressful.

In the evening I watched part of the 1937 Walt Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I also watched part of the Rounder Records 40th Anniversary Show on PBS. Before I turned on the TV I never considered it would be another episode in the nearly constant "Begathon" of WETA. I was somewhat disappointed as the last 45-minutes of the show progressed because it became apparent that the program really wasn't a 40th anniversary concert. It was several shows pieced together into what was probably about an hour program which took one and a half hours to watch with all of the begging for money.

Mr. Dickie
7/Mar/2010 8:35

Genealogy Project

[Without taking a drink or drugs you can experience a hangover, an ] ... emotional hangover, the direct result of yesterday's and sometimes today's excesses of negative emotion - anger, fear, jealousy, and the like. (As Bill Sees It, p. 48)

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts ... take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. (Marcus Aurelius in 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace by Dr. Wayne Dyer, p. 101)

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I'm working on a project to develop a method of salvaging some descendant charts I created years ago with the program, DESCEND. The idea is to convert these "text" files to "PDF" files that are suitable for viewing on a computer screen or printing out. I'm using a document about the Winland family of Monroe county, Ohio that I created in 2004 for my testing. Yesterday I made lots of progress. Lots of steps and several programs are involved. The process involved the shareware program, DESCEND. The freeware programs, EditPadLite and PDF995. And, the commercial program, MSWord.

The weather was nice yesterday. I took the opportunity to locate the pruning saw in the shed and use it to remove the damage part of the holly bush. I also pushed two grocery carts from "the hood" back to the grocery store parking lot. One of them was in neighbor, Fred's, garage and the other down at the end of the street that runs past his house. In all I returned three carts that showed up during the bad snow storm. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, "This kind of thing drives me nuts!"

Mr. Dickie
5/Mar/2010 8:11

Faces of America

Sharing experience, strength and hope acts like a medicine on the spirit, giving us a perspective on ourselves and our woes. (One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 7 February)

In mental work it takes time to gain the victory over wandering thoughts; they do not come necessarily through supernatural agents, but through lack of concentration. Concentration is only learned little by little, and the more impulsive you are the less concentrated you wll be. (Oswald Chambers, Prayer A Holy Occupation, p. 46)

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Last night I enjoyed watching the fourth, and last episode of "Faces of America: Know Thyself" on PBS. Host and producer, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. investigated the use of DNA testing in extending ones knowledge of their family tree.

Mr. Dickie
4/Mar/2010 8:46

Correcting Faults

San Andreas Fault

Let us always remember that any society of men and women that cannot freely correct its own faults must surely fall into decay if not into collapse. Such is the universal penalty for the failure to go on growing. Just as each ... [of us] must continue to take moral inventory and act upon it, so must our whole Society if we are to survive and if we are to serve usefully and well. (As Bill Sees It, p. 65)

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I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning. I was still trying to get my nose open enough to breathe at 7:00 a.m. I used the extra time to write a couple of yellow pages of journal notes, listen to The Pastoral Symphony on WETA-FM and catch up on some of my daily reading. I finished reading, "10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace," by Dr. Wayne Dyer. I posted the "date read" to my 2010 reading database. I plan to post to WeRead when I sign on to Facebook later today.

Every once in a while someone will surprise me when they mention that they noticed I didn't post to one of my blogs or that they read something in one of them. I have some followers of my blogs. "Followers" are people who registered as such. Google notifiers them whenever I post. There's a "followers" box in the blog sidebar. I use the Google Reader to follow serveral blogs, including my own.

Melva asked me if I could remember the author and book title of two quilting books she checked out of the library. I couldn't. It was a good question because it presented an opportunity to test out a new library service. My online library account now offers an option "to save a history" of books I've checked out. I signed on to my account and went to the history display. In a minute I had the information she wanted about the two books by, Jill Reber. Next I checked the library catalog to see how many copies of each book the library owns. At the same time I could check which branches have the books on the shelf.

Melva and I were pleased yesterday that we were able to hire two men to replace the 2' x 8' section of flooring that rotted out in our shed. My idea for waterproofing turned out to be a big mess. The material I bought was too thin, making it difficult to apply. I felt bad about that. Because I didn't have any experience with the product I bought I had no idea how it would work. Of course there were no clerks available at Loew's. You shop in the "big box" hardware stores at your own risk. I have a hunch that the material will work once it has time to dry.

Yesterday I made Facebook friends with Diane, the daughter of one of my cousins. I was already friends with her two children. I'm still hopeful that there will be more interaction among the various family members on Facebook. Only two of my generation are on Facebook.

Mr. Dickie
3/Mar/2010 7:04

Attitude Check

"the ancestor to every action is a thought." (Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Real Magic by Dr. Wayne Dyer, p. 25)

I will continue feeling bad until my attitude improves. (Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today!, 6 January)

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One of the men who cleared our driveway showed up this morning wanting the job of replacing the shed floor. He had a helper with him. We agreed on a price and took the minivan to Loew's to purchase the supplies. They left for a while to get tools. While they were gone we cleared everything that we'd thrown in the shed out of the way and ran the extension cord from the kitchen to the shed. I spent $63.00 on supplies. Both Melva and I are looking forward to putting this long-standing probelm behind us.

Mr. Dickie

2/Mar/2010 13:07

Searching

... possibly from the accidental discovery of the warmth of fire, and the consequent use of it, at first a luxury, arose the present necessity to sit by it. (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p. 14)

When one worrying or impatient thought enters my mind, I will put it out at once. {Easier said, than done. REH, 18 Jan 2010] (Twenty-Four Hours A Day, 17 January)

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I tested to see if I could install a Google search engine on the computer club website. The test worked. I'm sent an Email to the chairman of the website committee along with the URL of my test. I even came up with a trick that will allow anyone using the search option to easily return to the club's homepage.

Mr. Dickie
1/Mar/2010 8:00