September 17, 2020 thought for the day: See with your mind, hear with your heart. Kurdish Proverb

We’re at that “pesky” Thursday, an identification to put the accent on the extra use of my legs. The trip to the church and my tasks there went “swimmingly” (I feel like a poet today). I got the printing done. I got the taped files from the memory card to a file on the computer for the purposes of archiving the services and clearing space for more on the card. I dropped off the mail to shut ins in the box. On the way home I made a trip to Westgate Park for a photography safari.

Yesterday’s photo challenge was “step”. I made shots of the cement steps with an ivy stem accenting the back, and a shot of my neighbors single step off the driveway. Then I settled on this on of our stairs leading to the second story. My family and I have used that step for nearly fifty years not and another family used the same steps for thirty plus years before that. What a history those steps have experienced.  

While I was a church both Jim and I went in search of an item one of our congregants thought they had left in the sanctuary. Alas, no luck. (When I got home, I had a call...the lost object’s owner called to say they had found it and thanked Jim and I for our help. 

I decided the outdoor plants needed some watering today so I did half of the yard before I started the laundry. As I got the laundry together, I had to remind my self of the cloth that I had put outside to dry. Here’s the story behind that. One of my dogs sat in her own poop yesterday, what a mess. She really needed to be put in the shower but I can’t lift that much weight anymore. So she got a “partial” basin bath to her entire backside. Then my sister got her shears and cut some of the hair away leaving an area for another wash down. This is one of the somewhat less than pleasant possibilities of living with a furry family member. Some rather distasteful events occur, that’s a slice of life, but having their unlimited love and devotion and companionship and shoulder to cry on is well worth the once in a while extra efforts. 

Now to the other half of the yard and to finish the laundry, then dinner and dishes. To add                    to this day in my history. 

The word is mischief.  A very good part of the mischief that vex the world arises from words,  Edmund Burke. To smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief, Richard Brinsley.  For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do, Isaac Watts. He who has a mind to do mischief will always find a pretense, Publilius Syrus. Truth does not do as much good in the world as its counterfeit does mischief,  François de la Rochefoucauld.  A little neglect may breed great mischief, Benjamin Franklin. In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds, Aristotle. The sower of the seed is assuredly the author of the whole harvest of mischief, Demosthenes. Where cheating is, there's mischief there, William Blake. Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. A word that has been said may be unsaid-it is but air. But when a deed is done, it cannot be undone, nor can our thoughts reach out to all the mischiefs that may follow, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, Francis Bacon. The most mischievous liars are those who keep sliding on the verge of truth, Augustus William Hare. Cooking is a form of flattery....a mischievous, deceitful, mean and ignoble activity, which cheats us by shapes and colors, by smoothing and draping, Plato. 

The sky here is a beautiful color made because of the tragedy of the fires in the west. It’s terrible for all life in that part of the country. We can enjoy the beauty of the color but at the same time be mindful of the terror some are suffering both human and all other life. This article is about the wildfires on the west coast. I’ve been told that the effects are even being felt across seas. One of the meteorologists interviewed for the article stated that the wind is blowing in the right direction to make the smoke and fine ash particles make their way east creating the “hazy, milky skies and intense sunsets.”And it was further noted that  “the smoke in the upper atmosphere has filtered the sunlight...... reflecting and scattering the light a little bit differently; that actually accentuates those longer wavelengths — the reds and the oranges”. I also learned from this article that the Ohio Valley’s air quality is not being affected. 

Today’s photo theme is “zingy”. That could be nearly anything, I checked Google for a list of uses of that word. In the long run I settled on a family having an old-fashioned picnic with the cloth on the ground and an umbrella for a bit of protection instead of using cement tables located in the park. 

I am making sloppy joe for dinner. 

Joy