December 12, 2022 a thought for today, To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous. Chinese Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “free choice”. As I was driving home from church, I passed the sight. I thought I saw something dark against the tree trunk and slowed down seeing this black cat staring at me and not moving a muscle. 

This week is going to be busy building to the even busier week that will follow. I am going to do my best to get as much out of the way this week as I can so that next week won’t be a deluge. I hope to get the Christmas “gifts” I have been working on for two months done. I also hope to get as much done on the church newsletter as I can so I will be ready for the last minute cut and paste work to finish that one off. That will make the rest a little less stressful. I have two bulletins to do next week as well as the poinsettia dedication sheets. That along with typing two bulletin inserts for lyrics for the anthems. Then last minute fill ins for the newsletter. That is also the first week of our monthly food pantry. 

This next upload for yesterday was “gift wrap”. I still have to shop for some wrapping supplies but I had these handy so decided to use them for this theme.

I got this week’s bulletin done this morning barring any changes which could happen in the next couple of days. After that I moved to the kitchen. It needed some cleaning. 

After I make the noodles for dinner, I will try to get some more done on the newsletter. One of the things I need to do is the photo page. I have one set of photos from the carol sing we had last week. We are supposed to get a large delivery of donated food from an elementary school tomorrow. I will need to go get some photos of that for the newsletter too. 

One of todays photos is “lights”. What better lights in this season than the ones on the Christmas tree. I was a little lazy this year and only got two strands put on the tree. 

The word for today is travel.  Nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people, Mark Twain.  There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign, Robert Louis Stevenson.  The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are, Samuel Johnson. Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience, Francis Bacon. The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page, St. Augustine. A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving, Lao Tzu.  Travel brings power and love back into your life, Rumi. Wherever you go, go with all your heart. Confucius.  Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. George Eliot. The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.  Take only memories, leave only footprints, Chief Seattle.  Look at the stars lighting up the sky: no one of them stays in the same place,  Seneca the Younger.  When you are everywhere, you are nowhere. When you are somewhere, you are everywhere, Rumi . A wise man travels to discover himself, James Russell Lowell.  

Another up load for today is “twelve things”. I didn’t have twelve drummers hanging around so I used twelve of my paper quilled snow flakes. 

Union Station and its arch are historic pieces of our community. Near the time that Union Station was closed my husband’s grandfather was married. He and his bride started their honeymoon on a train leaving from Union Station. That would have been a joy for him having been a railroad person for many years before he retired. I remember driving them to the station after the wedding. After the station closed they moved the arch way. I learned some things about the history of the Union Station in this article. For instance I didn’t realize the Union Station “as it is recalled today was actually the third Union Station in Columbus”. The first two were in existence in the 19th century. They were replaced because of “rapid growth in traffic....and railroads at that time”. The article related that in 1891 the traffic was at a crisis causing the roadway to be blocked for up to seven hours a day. One of the main designs in the plan for a new station was for a viaduct over the tracks. In 1893 there were 112 passenger trains a day.  In 1897 the new station opened and accompanying arcade was finished in 1899. The arcade offered stores and offices on top of the viaduct. In 1928 part of the Arcade was demolished so that a driveway to the station could be upgraded. There was another upgrade in 1931. In 1956 daily passenger trains had decreased. By 1962 there were only twenty-one, in 1970 just ten. Automobiles and interstates had come onto the travel scene. In 1971 Amtrak took over “what was left of passenger service”. The arch that became famous with Union Station came into existence in 1893 and was finished in 1899. The arch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places form 1974 to 1999. Preservationists managed to save the familiar Union Station Arch and moved it to storage in 1977 then it was placed in a new park called Arch Park in 1980.  Later a parking garage was built there and the arch was moved again in 1999 to become a “sculpture” and architectural and historical relic consisting of the original “four fluted round Corinthian columns” with other unique carvings and medallions. There are other parts of the original arch still in storage.

I am making tuna casserole for dinner tonight....that means making homemade noodles. 

Joy

                                            over flow