October 27, 2020 thought for today: Honesty makes you rich, but she works slowly. German Proverb

I seem to be sleeping a few minutes longer each day... wonder if that is one of the signs of the aging process....if it is ..... darn!

The photo theme for October 26 was “a spider web”. There are plenty of those around especially this time of year. So I went to the “back forty” (back yard) and looked around the crevasses in the fences and sure enough I found a few. Then checked in the basement around the hidden and not so often noticed pipes and spaced in the concrete. I didn't get each strand of the web as clear as I would have liked to but I did get the collection if goods that the spider caught.

I think I mentioned a while back in the blog that I lost a pair of glasses and am wearing an old out dated pair. So I decided to take a pair of old frames to my eye doctor to see if I could get my current prescription glass put in. I called yesterday and they said they could do it. So I took them out this morning. I should have them in a few days. 

On my way home I decided to stop at a Kroger store to see if they carried, apparently, a special tea my sister likes. We can’t seem to find it anywhere. It is Arizona Arnold Palmer Zero tea. It seemed readily available a while back but seems harder and harder to find. The first store where I stopped didn’t have it so I tried a second one a little more out of my way but not that much. They didn’t have it either. So I gave up and headed home. 

While I was at the doctor’s office I asked if they minded if I used my camera to take a couple of shots. The theme today is “collection”. I felt their selection of glasses. After the stops at Kroger I continued to look for a possible photo that would fit the theme, a trash collection truck....no luck. There didn’t seem to be one working today at least not in my vicinity. 

When I finally got home and checked my email I found that the information I need to finish the bulletin was here so I got that done. 

There was an explosion of blooms on my hibiscus bush this morning so I took some time to go collect them (all eleven flowers) to enjoy inside the house. I think it will soon be all bloomed out for the season. 

The word today is opposites. God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one, Rumi.   Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, Isaac Newton. Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments, Plato.  While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one, Horace.  Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at all without opposites, Plato. Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds - habits and novelty, Jean de la Bruyere.  All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident, Arthur Schopenhauer.  In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition, William Ellery Channing. The bad man is continually at war with, and in opposition to, himself, Aristotle.  The only way to meet affliction is to pass through it solemnly, slowly, with humility and faith, as the Israelites passed through the sea. Then its very ways of misery will divide, and become to us a wall, on the right side and on the left, until the gulf narrows before our eyes and we land safe on the opposite sore, Dinah Maria Murlock Craik. The proof of a well-trained mind is that it rejoices in which is good and grieves at the opposite, Marcus Tullius Cicero.   

The article looked like an interesting idea. The title was: Charcuterie businesses slice out their own niche during pandemic. I had never heard the term so I Googled it and found that it was a French term meaning a meat platter. There was a photo in the article that showed mostly breakfast sweets which puzzled me since the definition was meat.  I glanced further through the article and found this sentence: “Though charcuterie generally refers to a branch of cooking devoted to prepared meats and comes from a French word meaning “cooked flesh,” people are making breakfast charcuterie boards that include fruit, eggs, bacon and pancakes, or fall-themed ones that incorporate candy corn, nuts and pumpkin doughnuts to savor after seasonal meats and cheeses.” One of the lady’s mentioned in the first part of the article said that she had taken one of these plates to a small gathering this summer. She said her friends suggested she make them and sell them. She sold fifteen boards in a week. Since her business picked up she invested in a “restaurant-style refrigerator”. Apparently there are others who started businesses using charcuterie boards. One person interviewed said that it is a way to make extra money especially in this pandemic arena.  One of the ladies said that she can pay all the household bills out of the company. Some of the people shopping are “jazzing” up there stay-at-home evenings. Others was to send a unique gift or to folks hosting a party. In one sentence she said “.... even the “food truck option” at breweries certain nights of the week.” Items used to “build” this platters or “boards” can be vegan or sweets not including meats and cheese. One board she did for a baby shower was one with “s’more fixings”. According to the article more restaurants are offering them on their menus. Also mentioned in the article was that there are kits that can be purchased to build your own boards. The food can be pickled vegetable or plain and multiple types of cheeses. One lady while on vacation made n eight foot charcuterie spread. 

I am making a meatloaf for dinner and I have mashed potatoes and a delicious Au Jus gravy I made last night with baked cube stakes. 

Joy