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I love the heat! My rule of thumb when driving is to put on the AC in the car once the temp hits 30C outside. I generally much prefer the fresh air. Having said that, I believe AC is one of man's all-time greatest inventions... probably top 10! 😀

You are incorrigible

She likes to fix and make stuff, she Said her two jobs at the top are baking and it support

A major, shallow quake has just struck Ende, Indonesia. That makes five Major quakes in just the past four days.

Eat them. Antibodies are good for you 👍🏻😁

It probably wasn't much cooler at home, to be fair. Especially in Oregon, it doesn't (didn't) get so hot; many don't have (or really need) air conditioning. Back in the day, congregations were sort of on their own with their Kingdom Halls, weren't they? Much depended upon the individual finances of the congregations. Some had style and luxuries- others did not. The congregation I mentioned above was definitely a low-income area and built by whatever brothers with trades could be recruited. Thankfully now, congregations get ample assistance from the Branch, building standards which include HVAC, and dedicated LDC professionals to sort it out. Likely any new build or remodel will include air con these days..

Yes the Branch makes it more comfortable for everyone and I appreciate it as much as the next person. I remember many of days with the temp in excess of 100° F and many of personal hand fans a going during a meeting. You didn't see the elderly or families missing meeting less they be in the hospital or severely sick. Missing meetings because of the heat was unheard of. People were tougher back then and used to really hard times. I'm not saying people are weaker today maybe just a bit softer and that includes myself.

Climate change has increased the frequency, duration and intensity of heatwaves, significantly elevating the risk of heat stroke. The old days are gone.

Saturday, August 15 Go on bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the accurate knowledge of God.—Col. 1:10. Good work, as mentioned in today’s text, includes the preaching of the good news. So when we read God’s Word and meditate on it, our faith in Jehovah is strengthened and the importance of sharing the Kingdom message becomes clear. To get the most out of God’s Word, we should avoid rushing through our reading, study, and meditation. Take your time. If you come across a scripture that you have trouble understanding, do not skip over it. Instead, use the Watch Tower Publications Indexor the Research Guide for Jehovah’s Witnesses to find an explanation about the verse. If you take your time when studying, you will strengthen your confidence in the truthfulness of God’s Word. (1 Thess. 5:21) The more convinced you are, the more you will enjoy sharing what you have learned with others. w24.04 15 ¶4-5

We got a very loud alert this evening warning about the wildfires

FWIW: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/emergency-alert-to-be-sent-to-england-and-wales-as-government-steps-up-wildfire-response-with-funding-military-support-and-bbq-ban

Well what does she like to do

Although not big quakes the worry here is where they were located and that there were 3 of them so close together. It causes the meteorologists concern.

I'm in London... and just got a UK Emergency Alert, just past 7pm local time, on my mobile/cell phone :-0 .... I wondered what the noise was, it was the alert sounding!

My Nince is asking me what type of work she should do, and what skills or education she would need. Shes graduating high school next year and set a goal of pioneering right after she graduates. What are some jobs I should recommend her and she is willing to go to college if she has to

I'm glad Sister. We thank Jehovah for his provisions. ❤. And thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it 🙏

Our Kingdom Hall was built in 2016 and we have AC (central air). Oddly enough, the temperature is fine when you first walk in, but by the end of the meeting it feels noticeably colder.

My first Kingdom Hall in the '70s had no AC, no fans, only small windows. It was miserable in the summer 🥵 Nearly impossible to keep the children still, babies whining, pregnant sisters gasping.. Yay for air con - and my sincere condolences to those without it.. 🙏🏼💐

So, how do we do that? Paragraph 10 contii: He might fall into serious sin and later feel that everything occurred “suddenly.” Or he might say, “It just happened.” And yet, if he thinks about what actually occurred, he will likely discover that he took some unwise steps that led to his transgression. Those steps might have involved bad association, unwholesome entertainment, or frequenting questionable places—whether in person or online. Perhaps he had also stopped praying, reading the Bible, attending meetings, or sharing in the ministry. Like the young man discussed in Proverbs, he may not have committed the sin so “suddenly” after all. We could start by asking. How is my daily Bible reading?

I'm with you 1000%- drives me nutty, too.. the apostrophe makes the meaning clear and the pronunciation correct.

⠀ Sometimes a tender conscience can make Jehovah seem harder than he really is. ⠀ You make a mistake. You pray about it. You try to put things right. But later, when everything gets quiet, it comes back. ⠀ You remember what you said. What you did. Maybe the look on someone’s face. ⠀ And you feel it all over again. ⠀ We’ve all had moments like that. You know Jehovah is merciful. You’ve told other people that many times. But now it’s your mistake, and somehow mercy feels harder to believe. ⠀ Then you read: ⠀ “Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and go where your eyes lead you; but know that the true God will bring you into judgment for all these things.” — Ecclesiastes 11:9 ⠀ And what do you hear? ⠀ Judgment. ⠀ That word can become so loud that it drowns out everything Jehovah said before it. ⠀ “Rejoice.” ⠀ “Let your heart be glad.” ⠀ Jehovah wants young people to enjoy life. He isn’t looking down on every laugh, every hope, or every plan. He gave us the ability to feel joy. ⠀ But he also knows the heart. ⠀ It can want something badly and still be wrong. The eyes can be drawn toward something that looks harmless, only to discover the pain later. So Jehovah reminds us that our choices matter. We are free to choose, but we are not free from what those choices may bring. ⠀ That’s not Jehovah trying to take the joy out of life. ⠀ He’s trying to keep the pain from taking it. ⠀ But when we’ve done something wrong, the mind can take that warning and go too far with it. We start imagining Jehovah waiting to condemn us. We know he is just, but we begin to wonder whether justice is all we’re going to receive. ⠀ Then Jesus says: ⠀ “Continue being merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” — Luke 6:36 ⠀ Your Father is merciful. ⠀ That matters. ⠀ Jesus had just spoken about people who hate, curse, mistreat, and take from others. He wasn’t talking about small misunderstandings. Real wrong had been done. ⠀ Still, he said to be merciful. ⠀ Why? ⠀ Because that is what our Father is like. ⠀ Mercy does not mean that wrong suddenly becomes right. It doesn’t remove responsibility. It doesn’t mean there will never be consequences. ⠀ Mercy simply sees more. ⠀ Jehovah sees the mistake, but he also sees the person who made it. He knows what happened before it. He knows what you were fighting. He knows where you were weak. He knows whether you are making excuses or whether your heart is hurting because you disappointed him. ⠀ Jehovah sees all of it. ⠀ Sometimes we don’t. ⠀ Guilt can become loud. It can start telling us things that sound true because they hurt. ⠀ “I failed, so Jehovah no longer wants me.” ⠀ That is not true. Make sure of that. ⠀ “I’m being corrected, so Jehovah must have rejected me.” ⠀ That isn’t true either. Correction can help us see where we went wrong and return to a safe course. ⠀ “I still feel guilty, so Jehovah could not have forgiven me.” ⠀ That feeling may be real. But it does not decide what Jehovah has done. ⠀ Paul wrote: ⠀ “Make sure of all things; hold fast to what is fine.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:21 ⠀ Paul was telling Christians not to accept everything they heard as truth. They needed to examine it. They needed to compare it with what God had already revealed. ⠀ We need to do that with our own thoughts too. ⠀ Not every thought that enters the heart deserves to stay there. ⠀ Some thoughts need to be held up against Jehovah’s Word. If they make him seem cold, unwilling to forgive, or eager to reject us, something is wrong. That is not the Father Jesus described. ⠀ So make sure. ⠀ Then hold fast to what is fine. ⠀ Hold on to the fact that Jehovah wants you to enjoy life. ⠀ Hold on to the fact that your choices matter to him. ⠀ Hold on to the fact that he is merciful. ⠀ We need all of those truths. ⠀ If we forget accountability, we may start treating mercy like permission to do whatever we want. ⠀ But if we forget mercy, one mistake can leave us feeling that there is no way back. ⠀ Jehovah gives us the balance. ⠀ He does not say, “It doesn’t matter what you do.” ⠀ But he does not say, “Your mistake is all I see.” ⠀ Maybe you are still carrying something you’ve already taken to Jehovah. You have prayed about it. You’ve made changes. You’ve tried to put things right. ⠀ Don’t let your heart make Jehovah harsher than he is. ⠀ He is just. ⠀ But he is also your Father. ⠀ And your Father is merciful.

Beautiful report. I don't know why, but it has always irked me how much trouble people have with a little apostrophe S in "Jehovah's Witnesses." Even some fellow believers struggle with it. To me, that little apostrophe S carries real weight. It's the difference between simply being witnesses and being Jehovah's witnesses, people who belong to him and represent him specifically. Getting it right feels like a small way of honoring what the name actually points to. I do understand that in some pidgin and creole languages, the apostrophe S isn't used, and that's simply a language thing.

EL NIÑO/SOUTHERN OSCILLATION (ENSO) DIAGNOSTIC DISCUSSION issued by CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER/NCEP/NWS 13 August 2026 ENSO Alert System Status: El Niño Advisory Synopsis: El Niño is strengthening, with a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter 2026-27. El Niño strengthened over the past month, with sea surface temperature anomalies exceeding +2.0°C in the eastern equatorial Pacific [Fig. 1]. The July Niño index values were +1.4°C in Niño-3.4, +1.7°C in Niño-3, and +2.9°C in Niño-1+2 [Fig. 2]. The equatorial subsurface temperature index (average from 180°-100°W) increased during July [Fig. 3], reflecting a deeper-than-average thermocline [Fig. 4]. Subsurface temperature anomalies were significant, reaching +10.0°C at depth. Low-level westerly wind anomalies and upper-level easterly wind anomalies extended from the western to east-central equatorial Pacific. Convection and rainfall were enhanced from the central to eastern Pacific and were suppressed over Indonesia [Fig. 5]. The traditional and equatorial Southern Oscillation indices were significantly negative, with values near 2 standard deviations during July. Collectively, the coupled ocean-atmosphere system reflected a strengthening El Niño. The CPC Official ENSO outlook, which synthesizes multiple models from North America and abroad, indicates El Niño will continue to strengthen through the end of the year [Figs. 6-7-8]. During the October-December 2026 season, there is a 69% chance of a historic event that would exceed the strength of previous El Niño events dating back to 1950 (+2.5°C or more for a 3-month RONI value). With an event of this magnitude, the chances of experiencing impacts consistent with El Niño are larger, but they are not guaranteed (see CPC outlooks for probabilities of seasonal anomalies). In summary, El Niño is strengthening, with a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter 2026-27. This discussion is a consolidated effort of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NOAA's National Weather Service, and their funded institutions. Oceanic and atmospheric conditions are updated weekly on the Climate Prediction Center web site (El Niño/La Niña Current Conditions and Expert Discussions). A probabilistic strength forecast is available here. The next ENSO Diagnostics Discussion is scheduled for 10 September 2026.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0gvsx3xZl4

Zoom is definitely a good provision. I especially like the live streams for assemblies, this particular venue was my one of my first experiences of an assembly when I was about 11, it was an international assembly, 4 days! Although apparently years before that assemblies were much longer and went on much later. Yes, it's not the same as being there , for a few magical days you really feel you have come out of this drastically terrible system. Will just have to close my eyes and imagine 😁💭💭