July 1, 2022 a thought for today, A broken hand can work but a broken heart can't. African Proverb

My last upload to a month of gratitude was this photo taken at Westgate Park of summer time flowers. 

The “business end” of this week is done. The newsletter is in the mail. The memorial bulletin is printed. Now for a little breather. Although I put together a new “to-do” list all ready for the next few days. I am also planning for a visit with family I only see once or twice a year along with some virtual contacts once in a while. 

I am multi tasking right now.....working on this letter and jumping up to do dishes ever fifteen minutes or so. I got some watering out of the way even though rain is predicted. 

My upload to the Canadian group yesterday was Angry Bird seemingly watching from behind a foot stool.

When I left the church after the printing I made a stop at McDonalds but also did something that I haven’t been able to do for quite a while, nearly three months.....drive around looking for photo ops. I am also exercising with an old and small DSLR camera. I have never really mastered shooting in the “manual” form. I have the auto feature on most of my cameras. I am kind of an “old dog” to be learning new tricks but what the heck....

The first entry of the month for FMS was “reflections). This one is of one of my best friends who is gone from my life now but alive in memories, her name was Sugar. 

After I get the dishes done I will move on to another multi tasking project on the list....meat ball treats for Sweet Pea. Then I am going to slow down for the rest of the day. 

The word today is ask.  Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson.  Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom, Charles Spurgeon.  Standing as I do, with my hand upon this staff, and under the folds of the American flag, I ask you to stand by me so long as I stand by it. Abraham Lincoln. Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced. Marquis de Sade. The fool wonders, the wise man asks. Benjamin Disraeli.  One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing, Thomas Paine.  When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants, Henry David Thoreau. We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one. Aristotle. God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how. Henry Ward Beecher. If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both. Horace Mann.   

This first upload of the month for the Sudbury Club is of some more flowers at Westgate park cozing up to a couple of rocks. 

I thought this was a good time to find out a little more about the river that flows through our city. This article tells a little about the Scioto River. This being the 4th of July holiday there was a lot of talk on the news about some people using the river to watch the firework display. It is a waterway that is 231 miles in central and southern Ohio. It flows from Roundhead, Ohio, through Columbus, collects the Olentangy River and meets at the Ohio River in Portsmouth. Earlier pioneers including Native Americans used it for shipping though it was too small for commercial boats. According to the article it’s most important use was for recreation and drinking water. It is the longest river in Ohio. The Ohio Valley was from by “retreating glaciers” forming soil that was very productive. So farms line the Scioto as it continues into “rolling hills covered in hardwood trees”. Part of its history was the destruction of the Teays River network in the Ice Ages which led to the creation of the Ohio River. In Columbus and Dublin the river “cut a gorge in fossil-bearing Devonian limestone”. Some of its tributaries have waterfalls, one being Hayden Falls. The river was names from the Wyandot word sken’t “deer”. The article mentioned that in the antebellum years the Scioto River was a route for slaves to get to freedom after they crossed the Ohio River. History tips from the article are that Chillicothe was an important stop for the Underground Railroad. Another tip, an Appalachian “fiddle tune”, “Big Scioty” was named for the river. In 2012 the river dropped to a record low level due to a drought in Ohio. During this Red, White and Boom, 2022, the sheriff’s department was patrolling the river in the downtown area along with a dive team, the police and the fire department watching for safety issues. People will not be allowed beyond certain distances due to falling debris from the fireworks, life vests for each person on boats are required, and any other forms of distress will be on the watch list. 

PIZZA!

Joy

                     downed cables

                                                                        End of June 2022 composites