October 19, 2020 thought for the day: If you let the weeds grow for a year you will need seven to clear them. German Proverb

It’s amazing how a cloudy, rainy, dreary day can crash the mood. Today fits the original “rainy days and Mondays always get me down” lyrics. 

At least I did get a good bit accomplished. I got the bulletin template completed to the point of the incoming information I will need to complete it as the information comes trickling in. And nearly the same point of readiness on the newsletter. I will need a little more information for the later. Hopefully, I will get what I need for both tomorrow. 

The photo theme for October 18 was “a closed sign”. I went driving around in search of the subject. I was amazed at how few I was able to find. There are several closed up businesses but they have no closed signs attached. Finally, I went to the shopping center that has several closed and re-purposed stores and was able to finally find two separate closed signs. 

I am so glad that medical establishments have adopted the process of contacting their patients when follow up appointments are due. I apparently neglected to jot down the date for my appointment with my family doctor. I got an email to let me know it is due this Friday. This is the worse possible week but it is what it is. I will have to rearrange the time for my other obligation for Friday.

I think I have completed the fixes for the church directory. The thing that is delaying completion is designing a cover that I am satisfied with. I have been taking photos at church when I have the change. I want a back ground for the front cover. 

The photo theme for today is ‘something hidden’. I captured an image the other day that I will use for today. I knew the titles a few days ahead. I saw this one as I was taking another shot and decided I would use it today. I’m glad I did since the weather is ugly today. I said ugly but if we think about it we need these kinds to make the others shine. This happens to be a view the waiting line at McDonald’s drive through. 

The word today is old.  Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards, Soren Kierkegaard.  When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age, Victor Hugo.  As we grow old, the beauty steals inward, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age, Victor Hugo. Grow old with me. the best is yet to be. the last of life for which the first was made, Robert Browning. The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity, Thomas Huxley. Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a flying: And this same flower that smiles to day, Tomorrow will be dying, Robert Herrick. The passions of the young are vices in the old. Joseph Joubert. Beards in olden times, were the emblems of wisdom and piety, Thomas B. Macaulay.  A graceful and honorable old age is the childhood of immortality, Pindar. Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator, Confucius. For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.   

I offering another story about pets, it seems I pick up animal stories easily. This article is about how pets and animals can take over feelings and homes. The person who wrote the story said that his awakening to the magic of animals started when his wife called him while he was away to say that his children were “talking” to a cat through the screen. When he met “the cat” it got the name of Stormy. He says that meeting changed his life. In the beginning it didn’t look good, Stormy was “bedraggled and pregnant and wet from the rain”. After the birth of her children and their finding new homes she became the “best of all possible cats”.  I like his description of “catlike in her demands, dog like in her devotion”. When he was on another trip away from home he got another call from his wife. There was a second cat, his reply was “no”. Well, the cat moved in and became “Lawrence”. Lawrence was a she, and not as friendly as Stormy. She brings in the occasional mice or chipmunk. As the story goes on, another animal enters the picture. The family, the man, his wife and his twins bought a barn and a fence and two pygmy goats. The back story is that one of the twins had a friend whose family raised goats that started the longing for another pet. The new goats became Peanut and Angel. So came the new experiences of watching frolicking and head-to-fist butting. He ends the story that the one-time- no-animals-allowed kind of life had become a willing “pet person”. 

I think it will be hamburgers and mac and cheese for dinner. 

Joy