Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 12/ Christmas / 18> A very special day for more than one reason; more like 500 of them.
First, let me…
First, let me get my sincere “Merry Christmas “wishes out of the way, I do wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and may this and every day bring you the blessings you deserve.
Today marks a…
Today marks a milestone for me here on steemit as this Daily Dose makes the five hundredth (500) post I have made to be a part of the steem blockchain.
Does reaching this milestone of sorts make it where I can now call myself a “blogger”? If so, I have some family members that I need to point that out to, like every one of them.
This has been a joint effort (not that kind of “joint” in case you were wondering) by joint effort I mean I couldn’t have done it without the support of each and every one of you folks who have taken the time to read what I have written, and for that I am truly grateful.
Not one person…
Not one person in the family who knew I was starting this adventure of blogging had me making it past 30 days; some had me at as little as a few days. Together we proved them all wrong. If I tell them they are wrong, they are wrong; but when you (the readers of the Daily Dose) tell them they are wrong; that is proof they were wrong.
Today is Christmas…
Today is Christmas Day and I do have a present for ya’ll , it isn’t much but it is something I can at least give each of you. That would be a look at my latest art creation I made. I bombed out of the TeamUp poker tournament early on Sunday afternoon and I had some time on my hands and a bucket of scrap copper wire and electric motor parts. Unlike last year’s “art” creation I made out of an old engine starter from a small block Chevy engine, I knew what I was trying to do this time.
I had a pony…
)
The oldest boy hasn’t even seen it but I know he is busy chasing around some girl he met at the gym. Christmas Eve morning he was off to the gym for a workout, funny how no matter what time of day he is working out she always seems to be there.
He started out with the gym to lose weight and he did, well over a hundred pounds. Now it looks like he is trying to gain it back, but this 100 pounds has its own arms and legs, pretty well proportioned is what I have been told too. It’s really funny how things work in life.
Speaking of Christmas Eve…
Speaking of Christmas Eve, the youngest boy signed up for the 11:00 PM church service to work the media projection devices and as luck would have it, Lyle wasn’t singing Stille Nacht at that one. So the family, with the exception of Blondie, ended up going to the 2:00 PM service in order to hear the song that makes Christmas, “Christmas” for me.
I didn’t realize it but on Sunday evening the church had a German language service in honor of the church’s German heritage. Back when the church was founded in 1872 by my wife’s family and a few other German families in the area; all the services in the beginning were in German.
So, I did temporarily suspend my church boycott but I will be back at it come next Sunday and with even more reason to continue it. Yes, even more reason. (you read that correctly)
The 11:00 PM...
The 11:00 PM candlelight service our youngest son was supposed to work the media projection for that service. He signed up to work that service over a month in advance and was listed on the schedule to do so. The minister in charge of scheduling even sent him a reminder text at 9:15 AM on Monday telling him he was scheduled to work the media projection and to be at the church at 10:15 PM.
He showed up right on time as instructed but the minister hem hawed around on opening up the projection area as he was talking to some of the church elders. Finally at 10:35 PM he came over to my son and told him that they didn’t need him to work the media.
The stalling around was because the minister was waiting for another church elder to show up who wanted to teach his daughter how to do the media. That was a big blow to the boy and my wife and girls were really upset along with him. Blondie had even suspended her boycott to support her brother and see his work being done.
I wasn’t there…
I wasn’t there and that was probably a real good thing because the minister and those elders would have gotten an earful of what I would have had to say. The 2:00 service sermon was about the “joy” of Christmas and to spread the joy of Jesus Christ’s birth. There was the joy of being able to serve the church taken away from our son only because an elder decided recently that he wanted to have his daughter learn how do it.
They didn’t even give our son the courtesy of telling him in advance he was being replaced since they weren’t sure that the girl and her father were going to make it to the service. Only after those two showed up did they tell him.
I have said before that I have seen this church changing direction since it has hired this group of ministers it currently has from over in California and I didn’t like the direction it was heading. To me this is just one more example of that direction I’ve been seeing.
Needless to say…
Needless to say, the family didn’t stay for the service and were back home by 10:45 PM. I was surprised as hell when they came through the front door. When I was told the story of how Pastor Lee treated the boy (sadly) I wasn’t surprised. Evidently making a commitment of your time to help and serve at that church means nothing to Pastor Lee when it comes from a sixteen year old teenager. Not when Pastor Lee can put a feather in his cap by allowing a church elder to just push the boy aside so the elders daughter can do it “if” they decided to show up.
This is strike two by my count; one more strike and that church can kiss my ass good bye for good.
Other than that…
Other than that; pretty much Christmas Eve went as planned, we did our traditional Christmas Eve supper at our favorite little local Italian restaurant and it wasn’t crowded. Today we go with Mexican food as the wife will be making her delicious enchiladas’ both the beef and cheese varieties.
Our oldest boy is half Mexican so we do the Mexican food as a “cultural” thing for him. That is the excuse we use anyways; the fact is we all love Mexican food. But it sounds good; “cultural” makes it sound like we actually care about what his ethnicity is,(we don’t) he is just one of the family.
You know though, I might better stop that cultural crap now that I think about it. We discovered this year that the wife and kids are part Cherokee Indian. Our three little Indians might start demanding we do some food that is “cultural” for them. I don’t where I can buy buffalo meat around here and I would have to think it is more expensive the just regular old beef and beef isn’t cheap at our grocery stores.
Back to the art…
Let me give you the specifics of this 2018 art piece I made.
The base is made from the steel plates that the copper wire was wound around in the motor. That motor also supplied the copper wire, that part in the motor is called the stator.
All the rest of the art piece is copper wire. The reddish colored copper wire is from the winding of the stator. The thicker light colored copper wire came from the heavy cord that supplied electricity to the motor from the electric source.
The very fine bright copper wire at the top is from a small fan motor I had laying around from when I scrapped an old microwave oven.
Here are the numbers on this 2018 piece:
The hours to create it was about 9 hours.
The height from base to the tip top is 39”
The total weight is 18.3 pounds
The total out of pocket cost was $0.00
The actual value as art is unknown.
The actual value as scrap is around $ 0.92 USD the way it sits in the pictures, it would be worth more if the copper and steel were separated.
I plan on...
I plan on leaving it outside on the table on the patio, that way it can get some weathering on it. The base is bare steel so it will end up a rust colored brown since it will rust and the copper will and up turning an off green color know as “patina” after a while, at that point it will be just the way I pictured it before I got started.
Don't worry...
Don’t worry; I am not trying to become an artist. Just like I wasn’t trying to become a blogger there is a purpose with these two pieces of “art”; and each year as long as I can I will add one more to the collection. There isn’t any need to say what the purpose is, after all, this is my 500th post and you know what that was all about.
Merry Christmas ya’ll and I will be back tomorrow with #501 and a complete wrap up of Christmas day.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
Note: Thanks for reading the Daily Dose. Be sure to check out this post by a good friend of mine,@trucklife-family, where she shares some gems that she curated from a group she belongs too; https://steemit.com/tribesteemup/@trucklife-family/4chjye-tribesteemup-s-weekly-gems
Photo Credits : All photos are the property of @sultnpapper.
FOR TSE ---> First things first. Congratulations on your 500th Post ... and the ability to say, "I told you so" to all the doubters.
As for your art ---> Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I like it. And once it gets the patina properly on it, it could look very interesting -- and definitely artistic.
I looked to see if YouTube had a version of Lyle singing "Stille Nacht" just so I could see what you're on about, but no luck. (But the dude did have some crazy hair back in the day!!)
This thing that happened to your younger son does seem especially stinky. Do you get a vibe that they're trying to edge your family out of the congregation for some reason? I mean this thing with your son was just plain rude -- and in a disturbingly calculated way, too. I don't blame Mrs. Papper for being upset, but it feels like an ulterior agenda is running. (Just sayin'.)
Looking forward to more Daily Doses in the new year. Let's hope it's a better experience than the one heading out the door.
Thanks ES. The Steem Engine has been a big part of me and has kept me going so I could make the 500 mark and I owe you and @ethandsmith a big debt of gratitude for bringing me along when I had no business being there to begin with. So this is a big "thanks" to both of you. Thanks.
Art surely is subjective, there are some things that folks consider art that I have no idea how it could be but those same people would probably say the same thing about this of mine. Eye of the beholder at work for sure.
Time will tell and as it weathers I think it will look better, although it does look pretty sparkly in the sunlight right now.
Lyle did have his signature hair back in 80's, there was no mistaking him for someone else. He has toned the hair down quite a bit now.
It is "especially stinky" but I don't believe that the church is trying to edge us out. I think that they just don't have a guzbucking clue on how to treat people within their own "walls".
I blame that on the California connection where people just seem to dis others without any regard for the other persons. They know how to treat the outsiders like during the hurricane Harvey relief, but they fail miserably when it comes to the congregation in my opinion.
If you remember, it sent out letters to shut ins who can't make it to church any longer informing them they had been kicked out of the church. My wife had to speak up on that and stopped that in it's tracks. She even organized a group of volunteers to call the shut in members to check on their well being now regularly.
The reason the church was booting the elderly members was they weren't making it to church and so they weren't tithing either and as it was explained to wife, "it costs money" to keep these people on the church role of parishioners or congregation list.
It didn't matter that most of those members had been with the church over fifty years or more and had been tithing all those years in the church administration's eyes, the old "what have done lately " mentality.
I have good faith in the coming year that things will be better , a whole lot better, and I intend to share those things in more Daily Dose columns.
Normally I am a big believer in 'worst first', but today I'm going to get the most important part out of the way first, which might leave my 'big finish' sadly lacking.
Merry Christmas! May you and the entire Papper clan know the wonder and joy of this season all year long.
Then there is the 500. That, sir, is a huge deal. I'd like to congratulate you, but that is sort of endemic in the number. Instead, I'll just say thank you. I haven't seen them all, but I have seen a pretty fair fraction and they are always on point and well written. Thanks.
It really stinks when your church doesn't have your back. And the stench intensifies when your child is involved. Why not take the easy and obvious way out? Have your boy provide the teaching moment? AAAaacccckkk.
I grew up in a German Language church. Until a 1955 merger the services were all in German, and a part of each service was done in German until about 1960. Just in the nick of time for me, German was no part of my catechism as it had been before. I was confused enough in English.
I'll make only one comment on the powers that be coming from Kalifornia. We do have an immigration problem in Arizona and it is people fleeing the insanity in California. They come here and immediately try to transform the state to make it more like where they came from.
I love the art. It's always amazing to me what can be made from 'cast off' stuff, and I look forward to seeing a photo of your weathered in palm next Christmas. Should be starting to show it's full potential then.
My best to you this day, and in fact, all days.
Thanks Tom, Merry Christmas to you and Sam. I couldn't have made it to 500 without people like you who will take the time read and respond with meaningful comments.
It is a sad state of affairs with the church when the 16 year old would have to provide teaching for the teaching moment instead of the preacher but it looks like that is the case. The preacher said, "I'm sorry" so I guess in his mind that makes it all okay just to crap on the boy like that when he stepped up and volunteered over a month ago when nobody would commit to doing it for the late night service.
The boy said he's done with volunteering for anything that Pastor Lee is involved with after this one. The wife is still trying to decide how she is going to handle it since she works up at the church part time but I think that Pastor Lee will not be convinced he made the right decision when the Mrs. Papper gets done confronting the head pastor and himself.
She also said that on Jan. 2 when she goes back to work she will tell the head pastor's wife who was asking about me a while back that she shouldn't expect me back ever after this treatment our son got.
Next Christmas I may just listen to Stille Nacht on the livestream and never set foot in the church. This has got me guzbucking angry with them, well past the level I had been at.
Congratulations on hitting the 500 with your posts Mr Papper! You've been a real blogger from day one, not mincing your words, sharing the truth! I've had many a chuckle here reading your blog and many that makes me stop and think too!
I'm really not impressed with what the church is doing, don't they realise that the youth is the future church, yet they're chasing them away! The leaders alone will never be able to sustain themselves and the buildings if their congregation, which makes up the real church, starts shrinking!
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue 351 (12/25/18)
CONGRATULATIONS YOU MADE IT!
I havent read them All but I bet they were All as Sharp as a knife. Your look on things and your writing style are highly appreciated and I am looking forward to 500 more. And YES youre a blogger now, you a cryptosocial next to a writer. So get yourself some New business cards for 2019 you might need to Change careers. Merry christmas is christmas morning here. Going to eat ALOT😉
Britt
Thank you for the congratulations and the very kind words. Merry Christmas as well. Eat all you can and then some, Christmas only comes once a year.
I Will, 3 days long!
Love that Pony Tail Palm, my one died on me (ants or something got to it) that is ever lasting and copper should turn green with time....
Cultural Christmas Eve dinners sound like they are going to grow in the telling over the next few years, will wait to hear about them too!
What a let down for your son being prepared to give of his time and knowledge, people really don't realize how they can crush a young man's determination by doing ill deeds like this.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
I always loved the pony tailed palm because it was so easy to take care of as a house plant. This one will be even easier than that, and no need to worry about ants or disease.
The boy has always stepped up and volunteered at that church since he turned fourteen and to do him that way was just plain wrong in our opinion. That pastor has the wrath of Mrs. Papper headed his way next week and I would warn him in advance but since he didn't bother warning the boy he was being replaced ahead of time, I won't warn him either.
You have a great and wonderful Christmas as well.
Ha ha, if Mrs. Papper is anything like me the pastor is in for a treat (good tongue lashing) he will never do that to a young man again.
As for Pony Tail Palm, my brother has one I gave him approximately 30 years ago growing in his garden I would estimate the height at 3 meters with a lovely sturdy base. Also gets Christmas lights at this time of the year.
We live sub-tropical so the palms trees are a delight in every garden here.
Fantastic, that you reached #500! 😃 Love the "art tree" that you made, and will defintely enjoy seeing it after the weathering process has put the finishing-touches to it!
Thank you Kitty. The weathering will take a while but I will show it at some point in the future when it starts looking like the finished idea.
Congrats on your 500th and I hope you write 500 more! Those ponytail palms have an incredible will to live. I got one as my 10th anniversary gift at the insurance company I "retired" from last year. It was alive and thriving 13 years later, in the same pot, with no special care.
Since moving into the new condo we've been trying our luck with a snake plant and aloe. So far they're both still alive but both are far more finicky than the palm.
Hope you all had a great Holiday. We're battening down the hatches for a winter storm this week. If it's half as bad as they forecast we'll be thankful for our Subaru's all wheel drive.
Thanks Eric, I hope I am around for 500 more and I hope steemit and steem are around for those next 500.
That, like you mentioned, about the ease of care for the pony tailed palm is what I liked best about that plant. So darn easy to take care of them as house plants.
The holiday has been good and I expect this week to good as well since I am off all week.
It is turning cold and raining at the moment but no snow in our forecast that I am aware of, I take it you can't make that same claim about snow?
I hope Steemit survives as well! It seems like, each day, people are less active. It reminds me of the days Steem sank to $.08. If the market recovers things should turn around quickly.
The weather is horsesh!t (excuse my French) right now. We got around 4" of snow last night and now we're supposed to get rain for 3 days straight, which will freeze at night. I would have much rather it snowed this whole time.
It's great that you have the rest of the week off!
Yes it is getting more and more less activity if you look at the weekly steem stat reports. But if there is a bright side to that it would be a lot less crap to sift through when a person comes here.
I don't envy you at all when it comes to weather, we have been having rain but we are pretty far removed from freezing temps for now.
Having the week off has helped since I had some drawings come in on Thursday to do. I should be able to be caught up on those before I have to go back to work on Wednesday.
Great point about there being less "noise" on the platform. This has always been the case when the price of Steem drops and confidence drops.
The "feels like" has been in the single digits all day today but we've had sun at least. These cold temps are hard on our beagle. When we had the house we trained him to walk on the treadmill and that helped his mood but now we don't have room for it. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time off my friend!
Merry Christmas and a 500-post)))
The tree is very unusual looks)))
And I was surprised by your daily dose. How many packets are there?
I am kind of an unusual kind of guy so it would make sense that the tree would be unusual as well, plus I am not an artist which is probably the main factor in how it looks.
In answer to your question on how many packets, I don't know. I never have counted them if you are meaning how many are in the picture I use. You are more than welcome to count them and let me know if you would, I imagine someone else might ask that at some point in time but you are the first so far.
Merry Christmas to you and Happy New Years too.
congratulations my friend on your 500 post that is quite the achievement indeed. And I love your creation the Starter Tree, I love seeing art from upcycling materials, it is the way forward in my eyes. I hope you have had and are having a wonderful xmas. Thanks so much for your support and your shout out today xxx
You are very welcome, I hope it does you some good with that mention. So much stuff ends up in landfills that doesn't need to be there. The metal seems to get recycled more than other stuff but at the price they give for scrap I like trying to at least create something once a year from the scrap.
That little starter tree I had no idea what I was wanting to do there, but this years piece I had a plan in my mind for it and it turned out pretty close to it so that was an improvement over the 2017 piece.