Inspired By Those Who Go Before Us

One person's example can reach through time to inspire others during challenging times. 

"Dear Ebenezer, you don’t know me. We have never met. But I have heard stories about you. Your feet never stopped traveling. Your hands never stopped working. Your heart never stopped believing. You never stopped serving. After all these years, your faithful example lifts me still. Thank you, dear Ebenezer. Thank you!"*

Who has inspired us? Have their stories been recorded and shared so our posterity can be strengthened and learn from those who went before?

*Read whole article here. 

Clip art

Twin, Single, Double - Words

We're sometimes amazed at the questions we've never asked before. Like - why is a twin bed called a twin? Twin implies two and therefore it would seem that twin would be akin with double size bed and not a single. We'd never thought about this - until now.

In our research we found many a few more mattress sizes we haven't heard of before. 

Twin/single (39 x 75), and extralong twin (39 x 80).

Why is it called twin? The most common answer seems to be that the beds were marketed and sold in pairs, as in a set/pair of twin beds. One of the beds then was referred to a a "twin." You see this with people twins. One of them is called a twin. 

More tidbits we found in our search - 

Full and double refer to the same size (54" wide x 75" long) 

Queen (60" x 80")  and Olympic Queen (66 x 80). The Olympic Queen is six inches wider than the regulation Queen mattress. Simmons, the company that came up with this size knew there would be resistance to yet one more size and all that meant for bed frames and box springs. So they kept the Olympic Queen box springs and frame the same size as regulation Queen. This resulted in a mattress overhang on the sides. Read more here. Evidently Simmons gave up on the Olympic Queen size. 

There's Standard King, aka Eastern King, (76 x 80) and then there's a California King, aka Western King, (72 x 84). FYI - a Standard King is about the same size as two extra long twin beds together. 

So - aren't you glad we asked? Two sizes of butter cubes are simple compared to this!

Love At Home - Bring Heaven Closer

"May our families and homes be filled with love: love of each other, love of the gospel, love of our fellowman; and love of our Savior. As a result, heaven will be a little closer here on earth."*

Love at home - more quotes here.

*Thomas S. Monson, "A Sanctuary from the World," February 9, 2008

Moments That Matter Most

 “Of Things That Matter Most”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

Happy Birthday Mom!

MARY FLOYD

Born July 22, 1926

Happy Birthday Mom!

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

78 Minutes of Summer - So Far!

SEATTLE: HOME OF THE 78 MINUTE SUMMER

Yesterday we heard people commenting that we've had a whopping 78 minutes of summer so far. This intrigued me so I turned to the Internet. Sure enough, a local meteorologist checked out the statistics and discovered the following. 

Since June 1, 2011 Seattle has had 78 minutes of temperatures at or above 80 degrees. That happened for 12 minutes on July 2 and 66 minutes on July 6. 

If you lower the "summer" temperature to 75 degrees we've had 18 hours and 48 minutes of summer - about 2/3rd of a day. 

Click here for the initial blog posting. Here's the second post which talks about the response to the first 78 minute post. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the picks for the best comments on the original post. And here's one more reporter's take on the "78 Minute Summer." 

Humidity, Mugginess & All This Water

We've wondered how we can be around all this water and not feel the humidity. In researching this conundrum, we've learned that there is a difference between humidity and mugginess. 

Temperatures and dew points are the key. 

"Officially, the dew point is the temperature at which the air becomes 100% humidity, but it can informally be used as a comfort meter.

..."temperature also plays a big part of it. Your body doesn't really feel the humidity until the temperature gets over 70 degrees or so. So, for example, on a typical summer morning, the dew point in Seattle might be 55 degrees. The humidity will be high in the early morning because the morning low was likely close to 55 degrees -- but since it's that cool outside, you don't notice it as much. ... an 85 degree day with a 55 dew point feels a whole lot more comfortable than an 85 degree day with a 65 dew point.

"We are incredibly lucky with our pattern here [Seattle] that it's either cool and humid or hot and dry."

Click here to see the entire article in October 4, 2006 komonews.com

Image

Weather related post: click here, here, here, here, and here!
Any topic that has five postings deserves its own label. So there will now be a weather label.

Marys In The New Testament

Multiple people with the same name can make for confusion when studying the New Testament. "Charting the New Testament" by John W. Welch and John F. Hall is a very useful resource.

The Bible Dictionary is also useful - here and here.

Weather - It's Different Here

Differences we've noticed:

-No thunderstorms - so far

-When it rains, it's usually more of a drizzle with starts and stops throughout the day. 

-We've seen very few hard rains and no downpours.

-This is the first time we've experienced cool temperatures in July. 

-The rhododendron were still blooming in July.     

                     Kirkland                                          Columbus           

Source 

                                                                 

Missoula, Montana - Smithsonian Article

"Living here is sweet ...."

Our Missoula family agrees with this.

Click here to read the complete article & see picture credit. "Missoula: A Perfect Mix of Town and Country," by Rick Bass, Smithsonian, July/August 2011

Breathtaking Views

Photo taken from top of hill 

about a block from our place

Olympic Mountains in the distance

From Somerset Hills

Bellevue on the right; Seattle on the left

Olympic Mountains

From Somerset Hills

I-90 bridge from Bellevue to Mercer Island

Olympic Mountains

4th of July

Sunshine and blue skies made for a beautiful 4th of July in Kirkland. Thousands of people lined the downtown streets. The main parade was preceded by a children's parade. A community picnic took place at the Marina Park on Lake Washington. At dark we walked about a block and were able to watch the fireworks display from the top of the hill. 

Sunshine & blue skies & clear enough to see the mountains. 

Picture taken a block from our home. 

Submarine veterans

 

Banners honoring people who died while serving in the military. 

School group, everyone on unicycles

I like the colors in this photo

About 10 DeLoreans in the parade

Rotary sponsored a duck dash

 Events took place at Marina Park all afternoon

Several of Kirkland's sculptures were decorated for the holiday. 

 Fireworks at Marina Park. We watched them from the top of a hill about a block from our place. 

Click here and here to see more pictures of the parade.