Maybe it’s not a salary and they’re just skimming off the church’s funds.
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Isn’t that redundant?
Slightly more seriously. I went to a Christian college. A lot of the guys were religion majors and many of them went on to become preachers. The ones espousing prosperity gospel always rubbed me, a militant agnostic, the wrong way even more than the proselytizing folks. I got along fine with ‘the quiet ones’.
Prosperity Gospel makes me really uneasy. Even if there is a grain of truth to it, which there can be made a good case for, it shouldn’t be the central piece of your belief.
I am much more behind a Grace based Ministry.
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“… and the Lord spake unto Rizak, saying, “SHOW ME THE MONEY!””
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100% this.
And, behold, for the money was shown, and it was plentiful…
If it was that easy 99% of the world would be Christian.
Krispy Kreme has decided to start pumpkin spicing all the things early this year. Pumpkin Spice Latte Swirl Doughnut, PS Iced Coffee, PS Original Glazed Doughnut, PS Original Filled Cheesecake Doughnut, PS Cake Doughnut.
I’ve been taking a more year-round approach. I stocked up on the Libby’s Pumpkin Bread kit with icing last year. Walmart usually has it around September or October. About once a month I will use one kit to get two cakes and that usually last me about 2-3 weeks. I find that 8x8 pans work better than 9x5. The shallower depth means the top of the cake gets done instead of being slightly undercooked inside.
However, I do regret buying the pumpkin, caramel and spice air freshener last year. Now I know why it was on clearance. Even a half second of spray is too much. It’s that overpowering.
I should have spent the extra 6 euro on tracking because I have absolutely no idea how long it takes a theremin to ship from Switzerland.
(Update: It did arrive. It was almost immediately banished from the living room by my family. It’s enormously entertaining, especially run through some delay and reverb effects.)
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That’s not a sentence I’ve ever heard before.
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I learned a few things this morning, but I would have preferred it wasn’t at 3 a.m.
A few times during the past year or two, I’d get woken up by what sounds like a knock at the door, but by the time I can check, no one is there.
This morning was different. I was already awake and there was a person at the door. They asked about a couple of the nearby businesses, said they were homeless and asked if I knew about any “red doors”. I didn’t and they left.
After doing a search, I find out a red door is often used for shelters and refuges. Mine isn’t but I guess people have been seeing the light at my door being on and have been taking a chance that my house might be a shelter but not sticking around long enough for anyone to answer.
What I learned:
- I’m glad I went to sleep early because it means I was able to get five hours of sleep instead of three. A lot of times if I wake up early, I can’t get back to sleep.
- Now I know that I likely wasn’t just hearing things those previous times, thought I can’t rule it out. There is that one time I got woke up by a train’s horn substituting for a doorbell and I’m nowhere near any tracks.
- During this interaction, I noticed my heart starting to beat faster. I didn’t know why. I just figured it out. It was my body recognizing potential danger in case there was more than the one person I could see and this could have turned into a break-in.
- I will need to shut the light off for my door at night instead of leaving it on all the time.
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Paint the door green, and risk a wizard and 13 dwarves to come and knock on your door.
Or -
Have a light with a motion sensor installed along with a camera.
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Sign of the economic times.
Beekeeping is a hobby/job that seems to boom when times are looking tough, but now that they are actually getting tough we are separating the wannabes from the real keepers. Guys who were dropping hundreds (thousands) of dollars on equipment but $0 and time on education are grumbling about prices and buying less and less and complaining more and more about why can’t they keep their bees alive. The semi pros and super hobbyists are seeing their prior work pay off and are selling honey hand over fist.
And the number of returns is way up, some of them returning before they even get the product. Which costs us 2.whatver percent and a paperwork kerfuffle. We don’t do credit card refunds, didn’t buy that service because then we would be out another 2.? percent. So it’s write a check or store credit. Used to be everyone took store credit, writing more checks now. We have always had a restocking fee, now we are actually charging it. Can’t afford to keep taking 2% on the chin on $300 purchases.
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I think that’s true of a lot of the self sufficiency projects. I’m still trying to get a market here up at my new place, but I’m not trying hard yet since my house isn’t done and I don’t have my egg cartons or incubators or anything set up. I don’t even have a 'fridge to store eggs in.
I’ve had quite a few people show interest in quail meat, though. i expect to have quite the market for live quail once I can start hatching again.
I’m lucky. I know someone online who sends me honey every year. He has several hives and has been raising bees for decades.
Yeah, all the hives out west are dying out. Turns out gigantic monocultures aren’t good for year round hives, and neither are water rationing and fires.
Of course, there weren’t many bees out West 150 years ago or so either. And no honey bees anywhere on the continent 500ish years ago.
We got two live bee hives on our farm, with the hope of a third.
Looks good at this stage.
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From what I understand, a green door could attract a different kind of visitor.
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Well, not so much the door itself as what’s behind the green door… 
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Reference acknowledged.
My brain initially went to an old comic Knights of the Dinner Table which used the ‘Behind the Green Door’ title for a long protracted sequence in which the cast spent an agonizingly long time trying to get through a door that was described in detail as being green. This includes leaps of logic based on obscure references to fictional cultures.
After finally being satisfied it is free of traps, dangerous magic, and other threats they open it. The punchline is that the DM was asked for a color and simply picked green on a whim.
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Did a fair this weekend instead of the regular market. Rolled in about 4 times what I normally do at the market. I have gotten my patter down pretty well, and if I can get someone to enter my booth I can usually set the hook.
What’s interesting is how fragile sales opportunities are at these events. Seeing a friend two booths down, a loud noise in the other direction as they start to walk in, a member of the group walking too fast, a grumpy spouse, or sighting something exciting at the booth next door. Except for those events I have gotten to where I can predict who is going to buy pretty well.
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