August 21, 2020 thought for the day: If you would be a good judge, hear what everyone says. Portugese Proverb

I think for the most part Fridays have become a “laid back” day for me. The bulletin is done and I don’t cook on Friday (so no meal planning and execution).

I don’t have any “formal” agenda today, just this and that. Don’t get me wrong, there is an invisible (or tucked away somewhere) list of chores to be done around here. The gumption and fortitude and strength that those chores take to complete are in hiding or ran for the hills.

August the 20th was another of my two photo a day challenges. The first was “flowers”. You can probably guess where I found that one. I’ll give you a hint, Westgate Park. The park is full of play areas for the kids, sports areas for sport enthusiasts (tennis, basketball, racquetball, fishing). But also many areas of “gardens”. Here’s one.

The other photo was titled “shapes”. This is one of the play areas in the park, oh, there are statues too, cement alphabet letters, artistic slides and swings, and this twisted pipes of shapes. The pandemic hasn’t removed those although activity was curtailed for a while.


I will have to give in and do some watering. The temps are comfortable, not too hot for the greenery, but there hasn’t been rain for a couple of days so things are beginning to whisper for attention.

My book of pages of art from some of my digitized photos is completed. I am trying to get the nerve to begin the process of getting it published to test the waters.



The word today is limits.  God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave, Francis Bacon. No limits whatever are placed to the productions of the earth; they may increase forever, Thomas Malthus. To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none, Francis Bacon. The one thing we do not know is the limit of the knowable, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Having advanced to the limit of boldness, child, you have stumbled against the lofty pedestal of Justice, Sophocles.  You must confine yourself within the modest limits of order, William Shakespeare. Each of us inevitable; Each of us limitless-each of us with his or her right upon the earth, Walt Whitman. Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power, Charles Caleb Colton.  Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it, Thomas Paine. Earth has its boundaries, but human stupidity is limitless, Gustave Flaubert. Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending, George Eliot.

Today’s photo theme is “joy”. I have a block of alpha letters spelling joy. I shot that and Photoshopped it with some interesting filters and such. But then gave the challenge further thought. I decided it would be better to show something that was joyful. So here is a one-year-around-the-sun birthday party.

I noticed early on that ecommerce was picking up due to the virus although I think it was in an upward direction before that.  Much Christmas shopping on line has become popular. It’s just one of the myriad of  things that for centuries has come with progress and growth and modernization. People who run businesses will ultimately have to adjust to a new way of operating, much like people had to start learning a computer keyboard instead of a typewriter. The article is about how the switch to “online commerce” isn’t beneficial to everyone equally.  The mom and pop stores are suffering. For one thing is they make sales through the computer most don’t have the IT people or computer operation savvy to help with that portion of the business as larger retailers do. In many cases digital transactions involve more work than in-store sales. Items have to be described and some photographed for display on the internet. Items sold have to be packaged and taken to a delivery service. It was mentioned in the article that businesses that have the easiest to  use systems are the ones that get used the most.  Web sites need maintenance and updates to programs as well as stock and prices on a regular basis. When small businesses had to close as the pandemic grew they offered stock online for “order on line or by phone for curbside pick up”. That caused a scramble to get things set up for that direction of sales. When customers can come in the store they can “browse” and talk to the sells staff which has been a help in making selections. Many owners thing that digital sales won’t completely replace in store shopping. To me it’s like going to a movie theater or waiting until the movie comes out on Netflix and the like. The theater experience is unique in itself. Another analogy, reading hard copy book or reading the same book on the ipad electronically. My problem with the electronic era is the loss of the social aspect of any enterprise. The internet offers a wide world of contacts and groups interested in the same things you are but there difference in thought to share with one another. I often wonder what the results of the “new” inventions will have on society in the future. I imagine people wondered that at the birth of cars and airplanes and television and computers and spaceships.                                                                                                                   
It’s pizza night....love it.

Joy