December 24, 2022 a thought to ponder for today,   A lie can take you far away -- but with no hope of return. Jewish Proverb

Friday was a horrendous surprise...well, not so much of a surprise, the weather men talked about it for several days but I was stubborn and a doubting Thomas until it hit. Temperatures were in such a state that I can’t remember clearly having experienced such as this for a long time at least not that lasted as long as this is predicted. The high temp was below zero all day long. My bed room is unheated so I chose a different area of the house to sleep for the night...a little less comfortable so a little more toss and turn.  I have a heat blanket but there are limits, as: the length of the cord, access to an outlet and the time the blanket will stay on before it shuts off. There was some snow and awful winds joining and adding to the drastic drop in temps. Needless to say I stayed in all day. Bob cleared the cars, the driveway and the porches (in ten to fifteen minute intervals) and started both cars to warm up. Today the temps are not much better. We have an event at church tonight that I think I am going to have to miss due to temps, slippery streets and darkness as well as my age and physical mobility. It is better all the way around that I stay home. I will be thinking of what the evening means being Christmas Eve and will be thinking of the meaning of the season if not joining in on all the celebration, it will have to be a personal celebration this year. Hopefully tomorrow will be somewhat better for the mobility issue and the state of the streets as well as being day light....for better eye sight. 

The first up load for yesterday was “a tradition”. I used this one from last year of two of my great grandchildren as they enjoyed a Christmas morning together.

We needed groceries so Bob warmed the car to a temperature much better than is offered in the kitchen and dining room at the moment, escorted me to the car and took care of helping the clerk load the car as I waited in the nice warm car. On the way to and from we slid once and nearly got stuck in a mound of snow once, he was driving...experienced....not me.

The second upload for yesterday was “candy”. I don’t have an candy on hand except for the tin or fudge and cookies one of my neighbor’s gave us.

We have a few family coming to share Christmas day so Bob and I did a little cleaning while we were house bound yesterday. I/we used the shop vac for the first time, rather than a standard electric sweeper or my irobot roomba sweeper. I am pleased with the ease of use and how well it did. Then I straightened the regular “clutter” catcher spaces, ie, my desk area, the kitchen counter and my hobby work spaces as well as the dish washer. I think we’re ready. 

I sent out my Christmas gift cards (online) for my great grand kids and wrapped the few gifts I will be handing out. Some of my gifts for the adults this year, my homemade annual calendar, will have to be mailed so they will be getting them a bit late. 

The first upload for today is “someone I love”. I love a lot of people and didn’t want to leave anyone of them out of my choice of images for this assignment. I chose my trusty shadow and most favorite furry friend gracing my life right now.....Sweet Pea. 

The word for today is weeds.  Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow firm there, firm as weeds among stones. Charlotte Bronte.  A good garden may have some weeds. Thomas Fuller.  Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, James Russell Lowell. He who hunts for flowers will finds flowers; and he who loves weeds will find weeds, Henry Ward Beecher. We bring forth weeds when our quick minds lie still, William Shakespeare. A good garden may have some weeds. Thomas Fuller. Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you want is not a sceptre, but a hoe. The prophet does not rise to reign, but to root out the weeds. Saint Bernard.  With a tiny bit of effort, the nettle would be useful; if you neglect it, it becomes a pest. So then we kill it. How many men are like nettles My friends, there is no such thing as a weed and no such thing as a bad man. There are only bad cultivators, Victor Hugo.  A Man of Knowledge like a rich Soil, feeds If not a world of Corn, a world of Weeds, Benjamin Franklin.  Yet, though it is like this, simply, flowers fall amid our longing and weeds spring up amid our antipathy, Dogen.  Suspicion and persecution are weeds of the same dunghill, and flourish best together, Thomas Paine.  Anger is a weed; hate is a tree, Saint Augustine. 

The next upload for today is “Christmas Tree”. I am not happy with the way the lighting in this image panned out. But in the haste and hurry of the season I decided to use it as my upload for this entry. 

I watch a program on PBS on Thursdays evenings called “Broad and High”. One segment of it is about historic areas of Columbus and surroundings areas. Last week one of the short stories was about the history of Children’s Hospital and mentioned things I never knew about it. For instance that it started out in a private home type structure and, in the beginning, had a hand full of patients and oh how it has grown. I have pieces of two articles here so my summary may a bit disjointed. One hundred and twenty-five years ago the hospital came into being “with the belief everything matters in the care of a child”, founded in 1892. It was established with the belief and promise that care for all children whether the family could pay or not, that “commitment ..has never changed”. After all these years patients come from fifty-two countries all over the world. It has grown to more than sixty clinics across Ohio. In 2016 partners and community support led to the creation of “stunning new facilities.......unsurpassed atmosphere of care......and will continue to provide outstanding care....to patients across Ohio and around the world for coming generations”. The first Children's Hospital was located “away from (what then was) the heart of the city” but was reached by a trolley line. At first doctors donated their time and a women’s board supplied the furnishings, beds, food and did the fund raising. In the beginning there were nine beds which expanded to fifteen beds all located in a house near Franklin Park. In 1917 two lots now known as Livingston Park were donated as space for a new Children’s Hospital. World War I caused a pause in the new construction. When construction began again for some of the cost for the new growth OSU offered it’s “brand new Ohio Stadium to be used as a fund-raising venue”. The new hospital opened in 1924 with 75 beds and “two solariums and an outdoor children’s play area”.  Today  Nationwide Children's Hospital has continued to expand and is one of the largest and most comprehensive pediatric hospitals and research institutes in the United States.

I am pulling the chili I saved earlier in the week for dinner tonight. 

Joy            

    Reflections on a rainy day