J's Cafe Nette

Archive for December 14th, 2007

While the Mid-West has been suffering from severe winter storms that have cut off their power, and now the Northeast is getting storms, we in SC are still praying for rain.

This week has had temperatures ranging from the low 70’s to the low 80’s and today we set the all-time record of low water. The old record was 17 inches below what we should have for the year. I don’t know what it is now, but we have been told Thursday would break that record.

The beautiful balsam wreath from Maine sent to me by my aunt is hanging on the door and is turning brown in spots from the heat. It still smells like home though.

The forecasters predict a 70% chance of rain on Saturday, but we’ll just have to see how that works out.

I got a bit excited today when I saw some dark clouds in the sky but nothing came of them.

This is certainly strange weather for a girl who grew up in Maine, but it’s also unusual for here. By now we should have temperatures in the 30’s and 40’s and instead we see people walking around in shorts.

Maybe global warming is hitting just our area of the world. ?

Tweet This Post

In searching for Christmas music to post today, I stumbled across a Gospel Choir, Soul Children of Chicago.

While this performance is a bit longer than most, if you do not have the time to devote to their full rendition of Silent Night, please have a listen from just about the three minute mark. I don’t think you will be disappointed either way.

Tweet This Post

Since we are desperately trying to stay away from politics until the Iowa caucuses unless something big comes up we want to get everyone into the spirit of Christmas.

It’s not about gifts but about The Gift. The gift of God’s Only Begotten Son Whose sole purpose on earth was to shed His holy blood and defeat spiritual death that whosoever will can be saved from that fate.

His greatest pain was not the physical suffering He endured, though that was great, but it was the separation from God the Father. When God turned His back on Him the moment He became sin for us, He cried out, “My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?”

And then He went to the grave for you and for me. The story doesn’t end there but is just the beginning. He came down off the cross and He was buried and He rose again and He lives today, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, interceding on our behalf.

One day He will return for all of us. Those saints who have already died will have new resurrected bodies reunited with their souls in Heaven where they will remain forever. Those saints still alive will have their bodies transformed into their eternal bodies and will join the others in Heaven, where mansions are being prepared for each of us.

Yes, to some it sounds like a fairy tale but to someone who has seen people die, whether they believed in Him or not, knowing they see beyond this world and one saw fire and smelled smoke I know this is not a fairy tale.

Remember Christ during this holy season. It’s not all about shopping, partying and gift-giving and receiving, for the Greatest Gift was given by God Himself over 2,000 years ago.

Tweet This Post

Happy belated Birthday to the National Guard:

Guard celebrates 371 years – or 19 generations of lifers
What is a few years younger than the Mayflower Compact (1620); a lot older than the Declaration of Independence (1776) and U.S. Constitution (1787); predates the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps by 139 years; and is 311 years older than the Air Force?

Answer: The National Guard.

Known originally as the militia, the National Guard turns 371 years young Dec. 13.

Thanks to each and every member for their service to the country.

Sometimes, people find themselves in hot water simply for the way they word a memo. That may be exactly what happened to this principal in a New York High School:

Last month, Principal Bennett Lieberman sent off a stern memo to teachers.

“If you are not passing more than 65 percent of your students in a class, then you are not designing your expectations to meet their abilities, and you are setting your students up for failure, which, in turn, limits your success as a professional.”

Was he ordering teachers to dumb down their classes?

The memo continued:

“Most of our students come from the lowest third percentile in academic achievement, have difficult home lives, and struggle with life in general. They DO NOT have a similar upbringing nor a similar school experience to our experiences growing up.”

The School Board is requesting he clarify these statements but in my opinion just about anything he says now will only make the matter worse. Sometimes silence really is golden.

If you missed this post at Captains Quarters yesterday, it is a must read.

HC: We’ve got to enlist the American people the way we did in a previous generation for the Apollo program. As a little girl, I remember being thrilled about that, and feeling there was something I could do. [Shrugs] My fifth-grade teacher said it was to study math and science, but it gave me an idea of actually contributing to my country.
Hillary Clinton was born in 1947. Assuming she started the first grade as a six-year-old as most kids do, she would have been in the fifth grade in 1957-1958. The Mercury program didn’t start until 1961, and Apollo started in 1966. John Kennedy didn’t even make his speech about going to the moon until she was a teenager, not a “little girl”.

The shine appears to be slowly coming off the penny.

*Apologies for posting this piece..I know I mentioned no Clinton pieces until at least after Christmas, but it was too important not to post. Mrs. Clinton seems to have a tendency to not be capable of telling us the truth on even the smallest issues…what would she do as POTUS?*

In a portion of a post by James Lileks, a simple act of kindness..the kind which I think you remember and tell your grandkids:

I don’t remember precisely how the conversation began, or who spoke first, but he said he was going to plug my meter, and I noted that I’d been warned in time, and gosh: that’s nice of you. I mean, when I saw someone about to feed my meter, the brain balked at processing the data and the conclusion, because such random acts of generosity seem absurd to expect, let alone witness. As it turned out: he was a reader of the sites, and recognized the vehicle from the Bleat. Seeing it outside StarTribune HQ, he figured it was mine, saw that I was down to 9 minutes, and wanted to chip in.

Wow. So, Kevin: I meant it when I said that was the nicest thing anyone had offered to do all day. Because it was, and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be equaled. It wasn’t. It’s not the cost, but the thought, and the idea that someone would fill my meter because he recognized my car and liked the work – well, as the old Ren and Stimpy cartoon said, it filled my heart with blood.

It really does come down to that simple phrase “It’s the thought that counts,” doesn’t it?

Have a terrific weekend all!

Tweet This Post