November 24, 2020 thought for the day: If there is room in your heart there is room in your house. Danish Proverb

This is another day with time rearranged. I am having new storm doors installed but the folks who will be doing the job don’t keep the kind of schedule that I am accustomed to. First there is one delay then there is another. I also had a piece of siding come off on the upper most section of the house in the seriously high winds the other day, they will be replacing that also but it is beginning to rain, so who knows. 

In the mean time, waiting for them to appear, I worked on the newsletter. I have most the major items entered with one top spot to fill and a couple of small ones. Then there will be a photo array to download, post process and insert. I am putting it on hold for the time being. I finished the bulletin yesterday but need to do some reformatting. I plan to finish both of those chores tomorrow before I bake the eight Thanksgiving pies I will be baking for different family members. Then I will find and put together both the message and hymn for hand-out at the free meal on Friday. 

The photo challenge for November 23 was “sharp”. As I came out the garage where I was getting a pot filled with potting soil to plant the top of a pineapple plant from the twins lunch I spotted an axe and thought “that would be a good shot for “sharp”. But I didn’t have my camera with me.  Later I was slicing some of my favorite Cabot ‘seriously sharp’ cheese for dinner....perfect for the challenge. 

Lowell and Rebecca have come up with a plan for keeping us all in our separate home as seems to be the safest thing for this year for Thanksgiving. They are preparing a whole meal and will be delivering to three different households. I am baking the pies to try to help out a little. 

The word for today is philosophy. True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us, Socrates. When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger, Epictetus. To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something, Laozi. I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend, Thomas Jefferson.  Philosophy is the science which considers truth, Aristotle. A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion, Francis Bacon. Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? Michel de Montaigne. The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next, Abraham Lincoln.  Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it, Socrates. The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next, Henry Ward Beecher. Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate, and hate leads to violence. This is the equation. Averroes. 

Today’s photo theme today is “serenity”. Since it was kind of soggy and gray I decided to look for something in my archives. This shot is from my back yard a little earlier this moth when we were having a perfect autumn day. 

We seem to be entering the Christmas season earlier this year than in past years. I thought this article might brighten the day and fit with the season a little. The title of the article tells about how the tree farms in Ohio are facing this season. Due to the effects of the pandemic the growers are hoping the idea of cutting down a tree for the holidays will brighten the days leading to Christmas. So many of the holiday celebrations and gatherings have been cancelled. The article went on to mention some tips. First make a “reservation” ahead of time. One of the tree growing owners stated that people should not try to cut their tree too early so that they will last for the “duration”. Apparently it is typical for tree farms open on Black Friday. An early demand for Christmas trees is “ratcheted up their time schedule” this year.  The idea of searching for a tree carries over to other holiday plans this year. They expect the adventure of tree searching, found and cut to be quick this month and next. There will be the well-known requirements for social distancing and the required pre-reservation and other safety measures in place. Other unique precautions will be cleaning the wagons and saws after each use. In the past free cookies and hot chocolate were offered to add to the festivities of the tree cutting, that will be “curtailed” this season along with the horse-drawn wagon rides. There will be tractors pulled wagons to a regulated number of people per trip. One of the farm’s reservation systems will be set up for every fifteen minutes with eight families at a time. The farms are saying they have plenty of trees but there could be a lot of people shopping for them this year. Wholesalers are having difficulty ordering in stock for the year. Trees take about eight years to “reach the height” people want. “Eight years ago the economy was not good” and people weren’t buying so the farms didn’t plant as many trees. One of the growers said  “We want to make your Christmas memory not be part of the bad things that have happened in 2020.”

I’m leaning toward spaghetti for dinner tonight. 

Joy