May 20, 2020 thought for the day: Listen to the sound of the river and you will catch a trout. Irish Proverb

This was an early start day. I decided that I needed to go to the “senior hour” at Kroger, mostly to see if I could get some meat for the next couple of weeks. So I was up before Bob left for work. I was at Kroger when they opened the door. There were only three of us waiting when the door opened. I was a little disappointed, the meat I normally use was not in the case. As a matter of fact, I think the meat case as well as many of the shelves were even more empty than earlier in this pandemic. And prices are up. It looks like going to the store is going to be more stressful than in the past. I got everything on my list even with a few less choices than I commonly experience.

The photo title yesterday was “mailbox”. Mine isn’t so fancy but it was my only example today. I have some interesting photos of others in my archives but felt I wanted to create a new image today.

I sent the draft copy of the bulletin and the newsletter to the proofreaders when I got home and got returned changes in about an hour. I worked on finishing those to get them ready of printing. I got the envelops labeled and stamped and the newsletter labels printed. I should be ready to print early tomorrow.

I have been working on a particular pattern for two of my great grand son’s gifts but changed my mind. There is work to do on them beyond the crochet base and would be taking me much longer than I want; so I searched on Google for a different pattern that I liked. I try to make something for all five of the great grand children in such a way that I get them all done about the same time (I work on all of them every evening, shifting from one to the other). The first pattern I had chosen would put the “timing” way off. Besides, I was concerned that one of the items required to finish it would not be totally safe for the kids if they happened to be able to dislodge it. I am pleased with the second choice.

My house plants are not happy with all of the rain in the past few days. They are drooping. Maybe I put them out too early. They are going to require some extra TLC when this rain stops.

Today’s challenge is “my iso (isolation) crew”. Well, the only two that were visible today and didn’t object (too much) to a photo were my dogs, Sweet Pea and Sugar. They were not in the mood to be deliberately posed so I had to take what I could get, one on the floor and one on a place we have made for her so she came see life’s view from the window.

The word is genius. Genius without education is like silver in the mine, Benjamin Franklin.  The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity, Thomas Huxley. What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality? Elizabeth Barrett Browning. When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him, Jonathan Swift. Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius, Henri Frederic Amiel. First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Men of genius are rarely much annoyed by the company of vulgar people, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Genius is the gold in the mine, talent is the miner who works and brings it out, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington. The true genius shudders at incompleteness, Edgar Allan Poe. The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality, Robert Schumann.  History shows us that the people who end up changing the world - the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries - are always nuts, until they are right, and then they are geniuses, John Eliot. Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes, Ralph Waldo Emerson. If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. To see things in the seed, that is genius, Laozi. The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances, Aristotle. 

It seems things pile up on one another. First we are fearing, fighting and living with this mighty virus. Now there are people in our city fighting yet another battle, much smaller, but hurtful to those living through this flooding. Today’s article, RECORD RAINS, Downpours soak central Ohio, causing 1 death, flooding, evacuations, are destroying homes. When I was hearing about the floods here in Ohio and other places, I hadn’t heard about the death by drowning in a car found  upside down in flood waters. Westerville, Worthington, Clintonville were only some of the areas that were affected. Basements were flooded, flood gates were erected in low lying areas near down town. The weather caused these kinds of flooding in Michigan Indiana and Illinois also. The rainfall in Columbus set a record “smashing” a previous record. Alum Creed overflowed its banks prompting the American Red Cross and the Central Ohio Transit Authority to assist the evacuated families. One man in the article tried to barricade his driveway but that didn’t work. So he was forced to redirect the water “streaming” in through his front door to go down the basement steps. Roads became streams. The waters have receded some but more rain is predicted until the weekend. 

I had a second photo of the day to day titles “a song title (use a song title as the title to the photo)”. This was a rainy day. I used the wherewithal at hand so I didn’t have to go outside searching for a “song title” so I used one of the handy dandy standbys, Sugar.

I got a Stouffers cheesy macaroni with beef dinner for tonight.

Joy