September 3, 2020 thought for the day: See that in avoiding cinders you step not on burning coals. Latin Proverb

It’s been a productive day and a bit of a burden on the muscles, tendons, and nerves that make up the human body. That part came from the up and down steps and the laundry.

The photo of the day for September 2 was “round”. There are tires, boxes, jars, toys, balls, and status in the round. I went to Westgate Park again and found the image I was going to use. We recently had a huge new water tower installed. The rounded structure has drawn my attention the whole time I passed it as it was being built. I guess it was the strength it’s size and the cement it is built with reveals.  Against the softness of the blue, blue sky and the fluffy white clouds there is a presence of soft and solid.

I went to church to do the printing. While I was there a food delivery arrived with food for our pantry days. There were several young volunteers there to unload and store the delivery. So the church was full of activity. After printing the bulletin and free meal message, I ran a really basic draft of the phone directory.

I have been working on some ideas for our taped church service. I am trying to get the file all in one piece instead of the two it turned out to be the last time. I contacted a dear friend who is head of the IT department for a government agency for some advice. As always he had some good information. I also spent some considerable time in online searching to combine all phases about the situation. When I got home from church today, I put all the information together to take to a meeting that I will be attending tonight.

I also contacted, through facebook messenger, two people I have been missing for a while. I need to know how they are doing. I am hoping to get answers from them later today. My son touched base with me also to see how I was doing, that always feels good.

I also started the laundry when I got home. Oh, between the church and the things I got done a little later, I took my sister to take care of some business. I also searched for my photo of the day in between all the other multi-tasking. In searching for “props” for today’s photo I found a piece of equipment I thought was lost. It has a blue tooth feature that I think I will be able to use. What a nice surprise, I am charging it as we “speak” here.

Other business aside for now, to get on with the laundry

The word today is manage. We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it, John Newton.  Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable, William Pollard.  Time is what we want most, but what we use worst, William Penn. It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau. Whenever we manage to love  without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heaven, Rumi. We always speak well when we manage to be understood, Moliere. The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor, Benjamin Franklin. We should manage our fortune as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity, Francois de La Rochefoucauld. Ill-health, of body or of mind, is defeat. Health alone is victory. Let all men, if they can manage it, contrive to be healthy! Thomas Carlyle. And he will manage the cure best who has foreseen what is to happen from the present state of matters, Hippocrates.

My photo challenge for today is “photography”. Kind of easy to find props for that shot. I gathered up some of my cameras and lenses and set the scene.

I try to stay away from articles about the pandemic and/or the demonstration/riots. This article seems to have just a touch to say about it. Let’s see what it says. It started with, because of our daily lives in this learning a “new normal” we may grouse at other, rant on social media or find other ways of releasing tensions and adjusting. One local artist decided to use a billboard to use her skills in a “super sized verison watercolor paintings”. The sign says “Mask Up Columbus” and in it is a group of figures wearing standing together, wearing colorful masks. The artist is 71 years old and former journalist. She feels she is still a storyteller moving “from pens to paintbrushes”. In the article she said that she “stayed blued to the news....this new way of life slowly drove her nuts”.The discussions of wearing masks wore on her to the point that she said “Wear a damn mask, will ya?’” While she was in her studio one day she decided on using a billboard to express her feelings about wearing a mask. She called the number a friend gave her to rent a billboard. The person she spoke to was friendly but seems “skeptical” about her idea. Finally it was determined that she could rent one for a month on Dublin road near Grandview Avenue. She worked with a graphic artist to help get the painting she made as large as twenty-two feet wide and ten feet tall. She didn’t say how much she had to pay for the rental. She said “it was worth every penny.....I thought I should just put my money where my mouth is”.

It’s creamed beef on toast and buttered noodles for dinner.

Joy