February 6, 2020 thought for the day: Tis better to buy a small bouquet And give to your friend this very day, Than a bushel of roses. Traditional Proverb

I am so glad we didn’t get the icy streets and snow they were predicting last night. I got to the church to get the printing done. There were already people there for the food delivery that was coming today. This one was earlier than they usually are.

The photo challenge for February 5 was “tell a story”. I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that I have been using a lot of photos from my archives with winter clouds are here. This is another one of those photos. I am liking a lot of these assigned themes, they make me think and look around. This one seemed to tell the kind of story that stuck in my mind for this particular theme.

Sue needed to go to the bank and wanted to get it done as early as possible so I got the printing done as quickly as I could. Then we got the trip to the bank off the agenda.

I nearly forgot I had a couple of loads of laundry to get done. I got it started after noon, later than I had planned. I spent more time working on a home budget sheet then, also later than I had planned.

Today’s photo is going to be a problem. The theme is “flower”. We are well into winter and there is absolutely nothing blooming outside. Most of my plants are evergreen and don’t produce blossoms. I am going to have to try to find a flowered piece of clothing for this challenge.....Here is what I came up with. I went to the archives again. I really much prefer to shoot the theme photo for the day ON THAT DAY, I think, for me at least, that is what the purpose of the photo a day means.

The word is distress. The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection, Thomas Paine.  In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength, Robert E. Lee.  I love those who can smile in trouble, Leonardo da Vinci.  If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment, Marcus Aurelius. I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve, Charles de Montesquieu. If we want to make a statement about a man's nature on the basis of his physiognomy, we must take everything into account; it is in his distress that a man is tested, for then his nature is revealed, Paracelsus. If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace, Thomas Paine. In times of distress strengthen your heart, Samuel ibn Naghrillah. Fortitude is a great help in distress, Plautus.  

I am a little skeptical about this driverless cars. On the other hand I imagine people were skeptical os the Wright Brothers’ dreams too. Today’s article is about a new service being tried in the Linden area. There are two passenger shuttles in the program started by the Linden Empowers All People (LEAP) group. They are hoping to connect people to COTA routes and social services. The shuttle’s speed is up to 25 mph. It travels a 2.9 mile route with four stops. They run every 12 minutes between 6am and 8pm every day, these hours keep them from running during school travel time. At this point there is a customer service representative on board who can control the equipment if necessary. The “pilot” program will end in February 2021. Apparently there was a service such as this along the Scioto Mile. It was in operation for nine months. These experiments are a result of Columbus winning the Smart City Challenge in 2016. I didn’t learn from this article how the first project turned out or how this one in Linden is measuring up but I would think we will hear more about them down the line.

I think I will be making chili for dinner.

Joy