October 17, 2020 thought for the day: Never buy through your ears but through your eyes. Irish Proverb

I slept in a while and this is odd because the girls were here for an overnight and one of them is an early bird. She is usually awake long before me. But I didn’t hear her. 

I decided to make pancakes for  the girls for breakfast. Usually Sue is the one who takes care of their nutritional needs while they are here, I tend to give them to many sweets. Anyway, one of them wanted chocolate chips in the pancakes and one wanted blueberries. 

On October 16 the photo challenge title was “ power lines”. I have some awesome shots of power lines along highways in my years of archives but I like to stick with the idea of a photo a day as being a photo that was taken on that particular day as often as I can. Sometimes I have to pull from the archives for one reason or another. Anyway, I went out in my back yard to find this as well as several other different views of power lines in the city. 

Oh, the kitchen light problem.....it’s fixed! Yesterday I decided to get over my hesitation and try to take the cover off the one that is giving us the problem. After some grunting and prying I got it loose. To my amazement the light itself was part of the cover. Sue and I went to the garage to go through some of the things in storage and after a bit of hunting and moving things I found the extra lights that were saved from the remodeling last year. I couldn’t quite get high enough on the ladder to do the connection so I waited for Bob to get home and he finished the hook up. We have light!

I had a short list of things I wanted to get done around here so I enlisted Bob again. There were two plants I wanted to hang. I had ordered the hooks several weeks ago waiting for the time and opportunity to get someone to help me get them mounted. Bob and I together got that done. Next on the list, we have a chest freezer that was left on a skid due to some further work that was going to be done behind it. Anyway, due to that additional height it was much more difficult for me to get things in and out. Today Bob and I moved the skid out and the freezer is about four or five inches lower. Two down and two to go. I have two more things on my list but I think I can handle them myself. At any rate my back is complaining so that’s it for today. 

I worked a little on the newsletter, not enough to make much of a dent so that is going to add to next week’s list. I will be at the church at some time every day from Sunday through Friday. 

I had to take a brake to run a couple of errands. I needed to go by the post office to drop of the newsletters I finished and then go by the church to drop off the message envelopes. On the way home I cruised in search of  the photo of the day. 

The word today is observance. Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty, James Russell Lowell.  Obedience is a virtue of so excellent a nature, that Our Lord was pleased to mark its observance upon the whole course of His life; thus He often says, He did not come to do His Own will, but that of His Heavenly Father, Saint Francis de Sales.  Should you be unfortunate enough to have vices, you may, to a certain degree, even dignify them by a strict observance of decorum; at least they will lose something of their natural turpitude, Lord Chesterfield. Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life, Marcus Aurelius.  Observation, not old age, brings wisdom, Publilius Syrus. Observation - activity of both eyes and ears, Horace Mann.  We pass by common objects or persons without noticing them; but the keen eye detects and notes types everywhere and among all classes, William Makepeace Thackeray.  Observation is an old man's memory, Jonathan Swift.  The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.  The observer listens to nature: the experimenter questions and forces her to reveal herself, Georges Cuvier.  

The photo theme today is “behind the scenes”. There are a lot of scenarios that would fit this theme. My first thought, and the one, I chose to accept as the one I would look for was behind businesses or in alleys’. I went out looking around for and shooting alleys. Then over to the back side of shopping centers. 

It seems everyone is trying to pick the way they want to vote this season. Here is a peek at one of the choices this year. The article is about how long lines of those waiting to vote gives a boast to shop keepers whose businesses are along the way to the voting booth. For this particular example and story, the line began at a HomeBuys store and continued past Sam Ash Music and Papa John’s ending at the Franklin County Board of Elections on Morse Road. The article went on to say that because of the traffic and lines regular customers may stay away until the election time is over. On the other hand it means people who didn’t know they were there have learned of possible new places to shop. Two people stopped after they voted to buy pizzas to take home. Another told the staff at Sam Ash that they didn’t know he was there and they ended up looking around and buying. The lines have been long but one thing to take into consideration is that because of the social distancing they look longer than time seems to measure. Another thing to consider is the lines aren’t allowed inside the voting center until each persons turn. The board of elections has tried to consider the businesses by erecting barriers in the parking lot to direct traffic. There are also police and deputies to control the near by traffic light.  The near by HomeBuys business claims that the lines “have generated more interest and customers”. 

Something from the freezer for dinner tonight, maybe chili mac.  

Joy