November 5, 2021 a thought for today, You may find your worst enemy or best friend in yourself. English Proverb

I was beginning to doze again when I realized I had planned to go to the store today. I like to go early before it gets to crowded. So I got out of bed and dressed in the dark hoping everything is in the right order and color and not on backward. 

The photo theme for November 4 was “red”. Have you ever noticed how much red there is around? I liked this one the best of the several I shot, dumpsters, traffic lights, foliage, clothing, and on and on. 

I got my virtual visits out of the way before Sue and I were on “the road again”. After one stop for Sue we were headed to Kroger. 

When I got home and started putting things away I realized the chest freezer needed cleaned out. There was a lot in there that I had forgotten about and had become out dated. So before I could get every thing put away, I cleaned out the freezer. 

My “new teeth” are giving my tongue something to play with. I am wearing them for a few hours each day in hopes they will soon begin to feel more like they are supposed to be there. At least they may make my open mouth and smile look less empty. I just need to get past the strange feel. 

One of today’s photo challenges was “orange”. As I was on my way home I checked out thing that were orange (I forgot to shoot the many “orange” things that are in a grocery store). There are lots of pumpkins at this time of years but I think the foliage is the most impressive. 

The word for today is history (and each sentence a food for thought) . There is properly no history, only biography, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and is gifted with an eye and a soul, Thomas Carlyle.  I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, Thomas Jefferson.  To study history is to study literature, Robert Aris Willmott.  History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies. Alexis de Tocqueville.  The whole past is the procession of the present, Thomas Carlyle.  Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever, Napoleon Bonaparte.  No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men. Thomas Carlyle.  If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  The thinker makes a great mistake when he asks after cause and effect. They both together make up the indivisible phenomenon, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The truly strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small, Samuel Johnson. History is as much an art as a science, Ernest Renan.  Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories, Horace Walpole.  There are no principles; there are only events. There is no good and bad, there are only circumstances, Honore de Balzac. History paints the human heart, Napoleon Bonaparte.  History studies not just facts and institutions, its real subject is the human spirit, Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges. One never really knows how much one has been touched by a place until one has left it. Thomas Jefferson.  If we tried To sink the past beneath our feet, be sure The future would not stand, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  Posterity allows to every man his true value and proper honours, Tacitus.

The second photo theme for today is “tea, coffee, or cocoa”. My item of choice these days is tea, iced tea to be more precise. Just for the heck of it and balance in color I chose to show the banana that was sitting beside the glass of tea when I made the shot. 

I like articles that show just a tiny bit (the bits add up to unmatchable offerings) of  the remarkable things dogs can do and bring to the human spirit. This article is about the discovery of what therapy dogs can to at even international airports such as our Columbus International Airport. Side note: How could anyone abuse any of animals and their often hidden gifts. This article begins with an airline customer who is terrified of flying. There is a dog at the airport named Gatsby, an America Staffordshire terrier, brand new to being “sworn in”. Gatsby is one of ten who will be volunteering in the security checkpoints of the airport. Their “official title” is Paw Force One. They are allowed to roam the airport terminal and meet passengers hoping to relieve some of the stress of air travel. The dogs chosen for this honor are more often than not happy. According to reports that were collected airports have tried massage table lounges and calming stations to help travelers relax. Airport officials here heard of several other airports with therapy dogs and decided to try them. The dogs go through training but also bring somethings “that can’t be taught”. On top of many other attributes, they love being with people. The dogs “uniform” is a paw-print neck scarf and colorful vest. Their “working hours” vary on each of the dog’s volunteers availability. One lady who approached the dogs said that her yellow Labrador is a visitor to hospice patients, nursing homes and schools. She “absorbs all the emotions that are brought to her....she senses need at the right time, whether its stress or sad(ness)”. There was a “swearing in ceremony” for the dogs on Thursday. Thor, a Saint Bernard, was one of the new additions to the airport and was sworn in. He is the largest of the ten dogs. One woman who stopped to pet Thor and receive his special gift of comfort said “he’s better than a bloody Mary”. One pilot who landed in Columbus and saw the dogs and said he hasn’t seen the program in the other airports that he has visited and thinks this program could “distract kids and.....put smiles on people’s faces before they get on board (and) will drive down the overstimulation”. Some would even like to see these dogs on board the planes “like air marshals....to maintain order and de-stress passengers.....they could stop some of the fighting”. They are another of the gifts from above whether working at airports or other assignments that come to them with their birth. 

Oh, here we are again.....pizza night. 

Joy

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