September 23, 2020 thought for the day: You will not be loved if you think of yourself alone. Italian Proverb

I started the day with some things going on in and around my life that are disturbing to me. Sometimes when I waking up I feel my mind is “educating” me. My thinking processes go from one view of a situation to another side or view of it and seem to travel that path until my mind seems to determine what the correct outcome to the situation should be. On one of the problems I mentioned above that I was wrestling with, I felt the need to share with a friend so I sent a text. Since then I am having second thoughts about expressing my opinions. My mood was one of anger and I have learned in my long life that it is usually best not to “speak” in anger.  It is best to wait for a more peaceful state. 

The photo challenge for September 22 was “garden”. I thought about taking another photo of my indoor garden but I was out on errands so I decided to make a short detour by Westgate Park to see if one of their gardens was in bloom. 

There was a bit of confusion with two improvements happening here at my house. It was tentatively planned that we would have a furnace put in today. At the same time and not completely sure of the furnace situation, the driveway was on the schedule to be resurfaced. We were able to reschedule the furnace for tomorrow.  

While the resurfacing was being done, I finished both the newsletter and the bulletin as well as the message and hymn lyrics for the Saturday free meal. 

The word today is moments. There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees, Victor Hugo. We are weighed down, every moment, by the conception and the sensation of time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose, Charles Baudelaire. Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment, Benjamin Franklin. Man begins life helpless. The babe is in paroxysms of fear the moment its nurse leaves it alone, and it comes so slowly to any power of self-protection that mothers say the salvation of the life and health of a young child is a perpetual miracle, Ralph Waldo Emerson. All good conversation, manners, and action come from a spontaneity which forgets usages and makes the moment great, Ralph Waldo Emerson. ....find your eternity in each moment, Henry David Thoreau. Every moment of light and dark is a miracle, Walt Whitman. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of, Benjamin Franklin. There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time, Jane Austen. Forever is composed of nows, Emily Dickinson. Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake, Francis Bacon. Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee, Michel de Montaigne. We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's, Henry Ward Beecher. The meeting of two eternities, the past and future....is precisely the present moment, Henry David Thoreau.    

The challenge for today is “heart”. I didn’t have anything readily available so I used some scrap paper and scissors for the image. Then used the ‘darkroom’ (Photoshop) for the color and filters.       

This is another article with a two-part story. It covers U turns in Columbus and “reading” when stopped at a railroad crossing. One person interviewed about U turns has lived in five states and wonders why U turns are not allowed in Columbus. There are restrictions that make them safer if followed. Some of these are proper signaling, visibility and distance, school zones, railroad crossings, and narrow streets. It was noted in the article that Columbus has a “blanket prohibition - no U turns anywhere in the city unless it’s marked”. Next in the article there is discussion on markings on the sides of railroad cars. The author of the story said “sometimes when I’m stopped at a railroad crossing, I wonder what all those letters and numbers on the sides of the train cars mean.” Here is something I would never have thought the number of freight cars in the USA, 1,658,000 along with other figures on number of miles of track and number of railroad companies. It went on to inform that it has to be known where the cars are and other information about them. There are letters of the owner along with specific numbers. Other signs tell the size and volume of the inside and outside of the car. It went on to say “there is a whole series of official placards for cars carrying dangerous materials so emergency crews”. I’ll also add a bit that I have noticed on the cars, graffiti. I see most of that as art although it can be annoying too 

I am making baked hash with some of the left over beef stew from last night. 

Joy