February 26, 2023 a thought for today, Sweet are the uses of adversity. Hebrew Proverb

The twins were here for a while yesterday so it was all sound and movement (or feet hanging over the arm or a chair) around here for a few hours. 

The first upload for yesterday as “a tree from below”. This is the season to see, explore and enjoy the multitude of shapes, forms and potions of the branches on the winter time resting tree. 

The message at church today was presented by one of our lay people. It was a good message and a day-to-day type of presentation. Then we had a piano solo by our newest choir member, a very comfortable tune. 

Soon after I got home Bob and I had an invitation to lunch with Lowell and Rebecca. We met at Olive Garden. I don’t get to see them as often as I would like so it was a treat. We had just ordered when Lowell got a call. Lou Ann was having furnace trouble, not good in this kind of weather, and needed Lowell for some help so he had to leave us. Bob and I shared Rebecca’s company for the rest of the meal. 

Sue is spending the day helping her granddaughter and spending some more time with the twins. 

The second upload for yesterday the title was “church window”. Here is one of the many images of church windows from my archives. 

Today the temperature is not so bad. It is around 50 degrees but by evening the temps will drop to the thirties or so.

My diabetes (Type 2) has been raising its ugly head for a week or so, so I doing more finger sticks and walking (exercise to lower sugar) and being careful with food. So the food for today at our outing  had to be thought about.  

One of the uploads for today is “pasta”. This was Rebecca’s delicious order at Olive Garden today 

The word today is danger. He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. Confucius.  Never was anything great achieved without danger. Niccolo Machiavelli.  The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. Thucydides. Danger is sauce for prayers. Benjamin Franklin.  As soon as there is life there is danger. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another. Charles Caleb Colton.   If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. Henry David Thoreau.  There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone. Henry David Thoreau. The humble are in danger when those in power disagree. Phaedrus.

This second upload for today is titled “composite (red)”. I didn’t have a lot of time, there was a lot of
activity today. I should have taken more time to put together this composite. I am certain I could have generated a better image, I have some experience with composites. I wanted to show my gorgeous Christmas poinsettia as it progressed in its life inside a warm house. There was to gorgeous red bracts at first then they began to fall until there was only bare stems. It will be planted outside in early April to awaken again next fall. 

Here is another story of history in Columbus from one of my favorite sources. This one talks about problems immigrants had when coming to Columbus.  As the article relates, in the 1850s there was “unprecedented growth and economic success in the United States”.  At that time there were a “rag tag collection of former British colonies into a united nation of almost limitless possibilities”.  In the Midwest rich soil and high yields of crops of wheat and corn also livestock. Roads, rivers, canals and railroads added to growth and productivity. According to the article Columbus was a big part of the countries activities. Columbus had 5,000 residents in 1834 and 17,000 in 1850. Many of those were from Western Europe and Ireland and Germany. The Irish settled in the more northern part of town, now Nationwide Boulevard. The German immigrants seemed to settle in the more southern part of the city, around Livingston Avenue. Here is where this article  began to pass on new information. There were ‘concerns’ about the growing immigrant population which led to a formation of an urge to promote “immigrant restriction”.  It went as far as forcing the use of a ‘password’. When passing by someone a password was asked for, many times the person being asked replied “I know nothing!” This led to the thought of a “Know Nothings” group formation. All of this finally led to “confrontations of one sort or another.....some verbal...others....violent”. One story of one of these occurrences was: in July of 1855, in the early evening a group in the “South Ward, a German Infantry Company....holding a celebration.... marched through the city”. At the back of the procession there was an American flag as well as a “society banner”.  The banner was threatened by bystanders. One of the accounts of the incident said that as the march continued it reached a point where stones were thrown at them as well as verbal insults, some said that even pistol shots came from nearby. That incited some of the marchers to draw pistols....it is reported that in this skirmish one young man was killed. Of course the parade ended. The article related that “nineteen young German men were quickly arrested”. According to the article “no further confrontations of this kind” happened although “dislike and distrust” continued for many years. In time, Irish and Germans along with many other nationalities coming to Columbus became part of the “diverse fabric that is America today”. 

We are each on our own for dinner tonight since we went out for brunch. 

Joy

            when I was filling my gas tank I noticed a cup someone “forgot?”

 February 24, 202 a thought for today, Jealousy is a pain that seeks what caused it. German Proverb

Dorothy and I worked on putting the newsletter together this morning. Patti joined us for a while. We had some “giving-kinds of envelopes” to put in the newsletter. I had folded the newsletters as they came off the copier yesterday so today that required one unfold and re-fold to insert the envelopes. That gave us some time to talk and “bond” as we were working, and, for Dorothy and me, reminiscing about life in our earlier days like telephone party lines, and some like-happenings in the raising of our kids as they grew in the “good old days”.

One of my uploads for yesterday was titled “your street”. This is one view of my street in the winter time....yesterday.

Now that the newsletter is out of the way for this month I have to concentrate on working on the annual report. I have a little less than three weeks to get it edited and put together. 

On the way home I had one of those “every-outing adventures”....photo possible sightings. Oh, that reminds me....on such an excursion yesterday on my way home I found and photographed one of the most wind torn and  ragged US flags I have ever seen. 

Sue is working on a project she wants to give the twins and needed some clip art that she needs to use for some of her sketching. She is slower on the computer than I am, so she and I spent some time finding and printing the ones she wants.

The second upload for yesterday was “this makes life easier”. This is my cell phone. Now days I don’t know what I would do without it. Now and then we have clients at our food pantry who don’t speak English. Recently we have found the language translator app available on the phone. It works wonders. Some of our people have pictures of their license with photo, also a great help.  Not to mention when needed in an emergency and away from any other phone in a hurry. (And for reading a library book when waiting and waiting somewhere).

Yesterday the temperature was seventy degrees, today it is thirty-seven degrees. I have heard some people saying some trees are beginning to show leaves and I noticed that my neighbor’s tulips are beginning to show their leaves. 

I am going to take a break for a bit.....my plants are showing me that they need watered badly.... I’ll be back at the computer in a minute.... 

One of todays uploads is “on the line”. I was going to try to use clothes on a clothes line but couldn’t find handy in the neighborhood. So I looked for things on white lines of highway line markers. 

The word today is control.  While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us, Benjamin Franklin.  He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior, Confucius. Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one, Socrates.  Let every man be master of his time, William Shakespeare.  In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present. Lao Tzu. Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee. Epictetus. Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience. Blaise Pascal. Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power. Benjamin Disraeli. Grammar, which knows how to control even kings. Moliere.  Indulging in unrestrained and immoderate laughter is a sign of intemperance, of a want of control over one's emotions, and of failure to repress the soul's frivolity by a stern use of reason. Saint Basil.  Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies. By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control,  Epictetus.  Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be,  Thomas à Kempis.   

The second upload today is “old”. I could have shown my own hand with the wrinkles and liver spots of time but I pulled this old, old, 1819, book of World War I photos off the bookshelf.

This bit of history is about the formation of the library here in Columbus. This one was mentioned in the PBS show I watch on Thursdays  Broad and High/Columbus Neighborhoods/ Curious CBS. Early in the life of Columbus after 1812, people wanted a public library and ‘struggled to establish’ one. Finally in about 1835 a “Columbus Reading Room” was formed. Then in 1853 the Columbus Athenium grew. Neither lasted.  In its beginning is was located on the first floor of City Hall and offered 1,500 books. In 1872 a man named John Janney suggested an ordinance that funds be ‘allocated’ for a library. “The Columbus Public Library and Reading Room was opened on March 4, 1873". In 1906 it was moved to a building across from the State House. Later funds were donated by Andrew Carnegie for a library. After some planning the money was donated to include a main building. Stipulations were made for not more than one hundred and fifty-thousand-dollars on the main building.  Property at 96 S. Grant Avenue was purchased. In 1928 money was raised to ‘fund’ four branches. They were Clintonville, Linden, Parsons and Hilltop. Later twenty-two more branches were added between 1935 and 1980. 

PIZZA!!!

Joy

                    another case of “dropped off” or maybe “coming back for”

 February 22, 2023 a thought for today The person in a hurry usually arrives late. Georgian Proverb

Last night’s meeting was productive and was finished early which is unusual for this particular meeting. Usually we are at least a half hour or more later than last night.

One of my uploads for yesterday was “insect”. I don’t have any images of insects in my archives and this isn’t the season in Ohio to find to many easily so I chose to use this “bulk pickup” shot relating that “I’m sure there is an insect somewhere in this ‘collection’. 

Everything is ready for print tomorrow. I did some small touch ups on the bulletin and put the last couple of fillers in the newsletter. It all worked out in good time. I was able to get ready for food pantry a little quicker than I usually leave. 

Food pantry started out slow and moved slowly all day but it was an ok number of families served. Gail was not there today so I worked with Dorothy. She hasn’t worked pantry for a while and seemed a little worried about getting back in the groove. She did great.

The next upload for the 21st was “your imagination”. I thought about using my filters in Photoshop to ‘re-arrange’ the subjects in an image to create an art piece but decided to use this one as I try to imagine what Sweet Pea is thinking about as she rests her head (from my spot in the front seat of the car, I might add) on the arm rest as she took one of her treasured car rides. 

We are having some pretty good weather these past few days. There has been some rain but the temperatures have been warmer this winter than in the past few. We had a few days of around zero temps earlier but seems to have passed after only a few at that sub-freezing temps. 

The first upload for today is “not mine”. The gift mine but the homemade contents are not of my making. They are delicious and comforting. 

The word today is conscience.  I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death. Leonardo da Vinci.  All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Edmund Burke. Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins. Thomas Aquinas.  There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us. Sophocles.  Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience. George Washington.   Lord of myself, accountable to none, but to my conscience, and my God alone. John Oldham.  The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul,  John Calvin.  There is no witness so dreadful, no accuser so terrible as the conscience that dwells in the heart of every man,  Polybius.  The Conscience is a thousand witnesses,  Thomas Hobbes.  Keep Conscience clear, then never fear,  Benjamin Franklin.  Conscience is a dreadful thing when it accuses man or boy;  Charles Dickens. Highly evolved people have their own conscience as pure law,  Lao Tzu.   

My second upload today was this image I happened to capture on a foggy morning in the city. The title is “nature”. 

This article may give another bit of a peek into our city before it was a city. This article is mostly about the Wyandot American Indian tribe of people. To begin the article it told us that the people who “occupied much of the land from what is now Toledo to Dublin and Columbus were called Huron”. I also learned that due to the Treaty of Greenville of 1795, land in the northern third of Ohio was reserved for Native Americans. But in the next 25 years most of northern Ohio was “acquired”, one way or another, by the United States. Further on in the article, by 1820 the main “tribe” were the Shawnee located near Wapakoneta. There was also a Wyandot settlement near Upper Sandusky. By the 1840s most of the reservations were gone removed by boats to the American West.. “It seemed all Native Americans were gone from Ohio”. Once the Wyandots were gone, there seems to have been one left in Ohio by the name of Kihue. He was born in Upper Sandusky in 1837. He grew up near what is now Dublin. Many of his relatives seemed to have moved on. In 1878 he joined the Sells Brothers Circus and was called an Indian Rider. He met Buffalo Bill in 1893. In 1915, after traveling with the circus, he returned to Ohio to live in a “ramshackled” cabin near High Street and Morse Road. Somewhere along the line he had been called by the name of Bill Moose. In 1927 “he told his story to a local journalist”. He told when he was born and the fact that he was a Wyandot Indian. He mentioned his father and mother, they had lived to be over 100. He said there had once been about 400 people in the tribe. He told of how he had met Leatherlips and about Chief Pancake who followed him.  He said the tribe was religious, they called God “the Great I am”. The story went on to say the tribe “converted to Christianity by John Stewart a Methodist Missionary”. The majority of his tribes were sent to Kansas and Oklahoma. He went on to say that twelve families refused to be moved.  Kihue’s story went on to say he never married and voted for Abraham Lincoln. He died in 1937, “two months before his 100th birthday”. He is buried under some stones on Wyandot Hill along the Scioto River.

Hamburgers for dinner tonight along with French fries and potato salad.

Joy

                                  Oh well.....

 February 20, 2023 a thought for today, The person who trusts is happy; the person who doubts is wise. Hungarian Proverb

One of the uploads for yesterday is “on Sunday’s I....” Go to church. This shows the beautiful columns and arches. 

I made a pretty prominent typo in the Ash Wednesday bulletin that I printed on Thursday so I went into church early yesterday to re-print them. I had made the correction ahead of time. So I was way early for bible study and a quick choir rehearsal. 

I have worn myself out already and the day is only half done. I finished the bulletin...well, up to the couple of pieces I still need but they should only take five or ten minutes not the two hours I have already put into it. 

The next upload for yesterday is “bokeh”. I remembered a photo I had taken of our Christmas tree lights, perfect for this assignment. 

Once that was done, I moved to the kitchen. I’m afraid the sink was full of dirty dishes so that was the first thing on that agenda. Actually there was one thing before that. I cut up the steak for the stew. I cut it in cubes and started the pressure cooker. So while that was running/steaming I began on the dishes. Once the dish washer was nearly full, I started on the frig. By the time I was finished with that it was full so I rolled up my sleeves and did the rest of by hand.

The first upload I have for today is “a product of love”. For me one of those “loves” is food. So this is a shot of my breakfast. 

After a quick lunch break I will prepare the rest of the food for the stew. And my photos for the day. 

The word today is connect.  Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves, Chief Seattle.  Loneliness is the first thing which Gods eye named not good. John Milton. A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one. Heraclitus.  Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe, Marcus Aurelius. Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. George Washington. It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man, Henry David Thoreau.  All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Chief Seattle. Sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness. William Henry Harrison.  And is there anything more closely connected with wisdom than truth? Plato.  Purpose ... is held to be most closely connected with virtue, and to be a better token of our character than are even our acts. Aristotle.  The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden. Goethe. 

Then next upload for today is “golden”. I have this vase with a golden hue. The “flowers” in it are fire 

This story about the history of transportation and of Columbus makes us think of other times and how we got from one place in time to another from the 19th century to now. This one is about stagecoaches in Ohio. It is said in the article that between 1815 and 1865 that “America grew at a ferocious pace”. Further on in the article that after some growth and ups and downs the American west became “free” of traders and of American Indians who lived in Ohio. That led to a “land rush” of  settlers coming to Ohio . The land here was “rich and cheap”. The new residents soon found that it was difficult to get form place to place due to few roads “of any kind’. Columbus soon became home to “entrepreneurs of transit”. In 1814 there was notice of  “post roads had been established to carry mail through the state”.  In the beginning they were used by accomplished by horsemen and weren’t for public transit yet. Later “wheeled transport and mail service through Columbus” began to grow. A few years earlier in 1803 there was a man, Phillip Zinn, who had, before he came to Ohio, “conducted one of the ‘mountain ships’ that carried produce and goods across the Alleghenies”. This sort of transportation seemed to lead to the beginning of thought for more wheeled transport. William Neil came to Columbus in 1818 and he “built a log tavern across from the Statehouse.” He left the tavern to his wife and “went into the stagecoach business” here in Columbus. In 1822 he joined with Henry Moore in furthering the stagecoach growth. By 1840 he became known as “The Old State King”. He owned a 300-acre farm that one day became the home of The Ohio State University. So he enjoyed the “golden age of the stagecoach in central Ohio from 1830 with better roads to 1860 with the arrival of railroads”. There was a time that the coaches ended up in a race that ended up at the old National Hotel, now the present site of the Neil House. The early stagecoach lines were sold in the 1840s and the owners went into the railroad business.

I had a third photo a day upload called “straight out of the camera”. Here is another of one of my poinsettias. 

We are having beef stew for dinner. 

Joy

                              Another of those cones

 February 18, 2023 a thought for today , When the river sounds, it's because it carries water. Irish Proverb

It’s looks like we are not going to get the twins this week end. They were with their dad in Zanesville and couldn’t come to Columbus this week. So the house is too quiet.

One upload for February 17 was “see through”. Instead of a see through cloth or screen I chose see through the slates of my stairs.  

Bob and I just got back from our curbside grocery pick up. As I put things away I noticed they were out of a couple of the items I ordered so I am going to have to make an in-store stop this week. 

It looks like it is going to be a busy week. I have two evening meetings and food pantry as well as getting the newsletter put together, printed and “packaged”. It doesn’t look like I have any “open” days on my calendar this week. 

At least today has a warmer look out the window but it is a tad bit deceiving.....the air is still on the lower side of “chilly”. 

The second upload for yesterday was “lines”. This chair was just sitting there saying “here I am .... lines all the way to the seat. 

We are still looking for a sexton for our church. For some reason I am overly eager for them to find someone. I hate for some of our people who have full time jobs have to give up some of their time to do cleaning chores at church on whatever free time they have. We have a lot of people sharing our church space so that negates longer and more cleaning events. We have had a couple of scheduled interviews that didn’t pan out. We have one now on a list (very short list) of possibles. Hopefully this one will “the one”. I don’t have the strength or energy to be of much help when it comes to the cleaning any more but I can look for people who are looking for jobs and try to open a connection from them to our personnel. 

My only other chore on the to-do list today is stewing a chicken. I want to cut it up to freeze and have ready for quick meals.

One of the family is moving today from one southern town to another. This one even a little further from me. 

An upload for today is “a game”. The only game I had handy was a deck of cards to I set up a winning hand for this shot. 

The word for today is concern.  Conduct is three-fourths of our life and its largest concern, Matthew Arnold. Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us, Francois de la Rochefoucauld. It is your concern when your neighbor's wall is on fire, Horace. All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil, Sophocles.  The sage has no concern for himself, but makes the concerns of others his own. Laozi. Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. Abraham Lincoln. My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. Abraham Lincoln. The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings. William Hazlitt.   Everyone's a millionaire where promises are concerned. Ovid.  Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing. Henry David Thoreau.  We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain. Saint Augustine. 

The second upload for today was “small”. I liked the idea of showing some tiny new leaves against the larger “adult”  bracts on the poinsettia plant.

Here’s is some more about Columbus in the form of gardening with some interesting history. The article began with sharing that in th 1800s Columbus was experiencing social change. There were hundred of people coming to the city to work in industry and other occupations. Early in 1831 there were about 2,000 people here. By 1834 as the Ohio and Erie Canal and National road came then we grew to 5,000. Some were from farms in Ohio others were from Europe, mostly Ireland and Germany. According to the article many of the German people settled around the Livington Avenue area. Schools, churches and newspapers, bakeries, breweries and the like using in majority the German language. The article went on the mention that “An article in the Ohio State Journal on June 4, 1867, remembered one of those people who was best known as “Old Joe.” “Old Joe”, Franz Joseph Weitgennant, had come to Columbus from Freiberg, Germany in 1833. He worked for two men who arranged for him to do the planting of elms in Capitol Square. This led to him becoming “one of the earliest professional gardeners in the city”. It is reported that he took care of diseased trees or ‘sick’ flowers like a physician would his own patients. He put a lot of effort into building a garden in the northern part of Columbus but severe winters of thirty years killed every thing he planted so he gave that garden up. He tried again in 1842 with a garden on Washington Avenue. Somehow ladies got the impression he was disagreeable and a woman hater even though he was actually quiet or “not an uncivil person” and was considered mysterious and peculiar. So he was a bachelor and lived pretty much alone. And yet we was known for preparing “exquisite ....bouquets for sweethearts (of his friends)”. He was actually and surprisingly a “confidant of half of the young men in the city on love matters”. He was fond of children and like to surprise them with his skill with flowers. He was wise in preparing for the matter of his death so he bought land a Green Lawn cemetery and had his tombstone inscribed. He was a man who kept his own secrets as well as those of his few friends. After his death a little about his previous life came to the surface. According to the article one incidence of unexpected kindness for him from a lady in Columbus caused one of his secrets to become known. When Old Joe was Young Joe he was in love. The family of his love moved to America where he was to follow and they would be married. When he got here he found that “his sweetheart” had married someone else. So maybe that is why “Old Joe” was “half a hermit and all a mystery.”

We will have chili mac for dinner tonight. 

Joy

                                      closed and out of business

 February 16, 2023 a thought for today, There's trouble in every house and some in the street. Irish Proverb

One of the uploads for February 15 was “on a shelf”. This is a couple of the shelves we have in a food pantry.

As I was printing today one of the lady’s came in. It’s always good to have a little time to chart with one of the other church family. There were some pieces moved into the food pantry area. I got the bulletin, anthem sheet and the Ash Wednesday bulletins done. I later got a call to let me know that the date on the front needs to be changed so I will run it before Wednesday. 

Another of the uploads for Wednesday was “midnight”. I’m an “early to bed” kind of person so I don’t see midnight to often. This is as close as I could get. Looking from a dark room through a door cracked open around ten o’clock.

Today isn’t really a good day to be on the look out for good photo shots. It is a little overcast which for some kinds of photos can be good....just not today....for me.

Once I got home and rested the tired ol’ legs for a few minutes I started the weekly laundry that will take up the rest of the day. There’s not much other house work that needs to be done at the moment since the cleaning lady was here just a couple of days ago leaving time for some more “back burner” chores. I need to get into the annual report work too. The newsletter is still in the works for next week. So no time to be to lazy for too long. 

Yesterday was another day for a third upload called “books or magazines”. 

The word for today is come. Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door, Emily Dickinson.  How lovely are the portals of the night, when stars come out to watch the daylight die, Thomas Cole.  Great thoughts come from the heart, Luc De Clapiers. I will prepare and some day my chance will come. Abraham Lincoln. 'The time has come,' the walrus said, 'to talk of many things: of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings.' Lewis Carroll.  Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists. Blaise Pascal. Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave. Martin Luther. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Jesus Christ.  Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.' Alfred Lord Tennyson. Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance. Virgil.  Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher. William Wordsworth. The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone. George Eliot.  All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo.  Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin. Francesca da Rimini.  We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing. Louisa May Alcott.  

The first upload for today is “money”. I have some change that needs to be separated and taken to the bank.

Those of you reading my letters and blogs know I am an “animal lover” and like to point out when and how they  “protect”, offer comfort and life improving qualities. This one is one such article. It is about rescue dogs. One of the dogs mentioned briefly in the story is an Australian Shepherd...that is my Sweet Pea’s breed. I  use to have a Basset Hound also mentioned in the article. There is a team in Ohio, Southern Ohio Canine Search and Rescue, who “are working tirelessly to find missing people”. The dogs in this group are “diverse”. This team was started in 2021 and to date have been called for searches thirteen times. They are made up of ten dogs and six handlers along with two field supporters who collaborate with local law enforcement. The “jobs” are....the dogs learn to find a scent, the handler watches over the dogs, the support team stays with the dog and handler to keep them safe watching for hazards and handles communications. I learned in this article that everyone on the team has a background in fire and EMS. Some of the breeds of dogs on this team are German shepherds, Australian shepherds, Boarder Collie mix, a Basset Hound, a Labrador mix. The article says that any dog can be trained in these areas. Some of the dogs on the team are rescues. The training classes for the dogs include scent, trailing, water recovery, live find and human remains “detection”.  Some are “dual-trained” for air scent and some for ground scent. Those for air scent are off leash, the ground scent are on leash.  Pandee is trained for water recovery. She stands on the bow of the boat and sniffs the water or ice then whines, barks or drools when she finds the scent. Baby, a black Lab, air scents. She wears a cowbell for tracking purposes. When she finds the scent she barks five time then gets a squeaky ball treat. Rosie is a Basset Hound and uses her long ears to help find the ground scent. Handlers can encourage the dogs but in the end the dog decides which skill fits them best. Training starts in a room where a person is picked for the dog to find, as they practice the person moves further and further away. They practice training so they can track in any “environment”....urban, wilderness and residential. Some of the training includes “hiding” used when the person being sought is a run away and might be hiding anywhere. Besides working with the dogs in their training the handlers also attend seminars and completes certification with their dogs. The handlers pay for their own training and their pets. The organization receives financial support for equipment including jackets as protection. They are hoping to buy radios for communication while on searches.  

Another upload for today is “pretty”. This is my only house plant that is blooming at the present. It is my Peace Lily at the for front of its plant house mates.

More air fry for dinner....chicken fries and French fries (all lower fat due to air fry). I love the air fryer and it doses save me time and clean up and the food is healthier but I’m hoping that more food is made available that takes less prep time than “made from scratch” and is package ready for the air fryer. 

Joy

  waiting for spring

 February 14, 2023 a thought for today, It is easier to demolish a house than to build one. Irish Proverb

The cleaning ladies were here this morning so as they worked I worked one parts of the newsletter. I should get the rest of what I need for the bulletin this afternoon. The material I will  need for the annual report has started coming in. I haven’t opened the template yet so I could begin that process. Maybe I will get a chance to do that later this week. 

An upload for February 13 was “B is for”. As I was coming home from an errand, I got behind this bus for a photo of B is for.

I got things together to head out for food pantry soon after the ladies left......it was a medium day at pantry. Our “normal” number of clients is around fifteen. Some good days it may be as high as twenty-five or so. Today we had eleven families. And the pace was pretty steady. Among the “treats” we have for our guests we had a beautiful Valentines Day cake today. 

Another upload for yesterday was “letters”. There are “letters” all over the place. I had in mind something in fancy lettering but after some searching I chose to use this, a template for our photos of the day. 

The house is all nice and bright. I usually pick up all of Sweet Peas toys before the cleaning so they are out of the way. As soon as the door closed, I placed them back on the floor for her to go through. It use to be we needed a toy box for her collection. It has shrunk to about half a dozen toys now two of which are Angry Birds, her go-tos on most occasions. 

My first upload for today is “love is”. My gentle, always faithful, always forgiving, always near me - my Sweet Pea.

The word for today is circle. Circle are praised, not that abound, In largeness, but the exactly round, Edmund Waller.  All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in circle, Marcus Aurelius.  Circles, like the soul, are neverending and turn round and round without a stop, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Time will generally lessen the interest of every attachment not within the daily circle, Jane Austen.  Mankind is not a circle with a single center but an ellipse with two focal points of which facts are one and ideas the other, Victor Hugo.  The circle of life is cut up into segments. All lines are equal if they are drawn from the centre and touch the circumference, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.  The friendship that can cease has never been real, St. Jerome.  Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift' up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up, Solomon. The enthusiast has been compared to a man walking in a fog; everything immediately around him, or in contact with him, appears sufficiently clear and luminous; but beyond the little circle of which he himself is the centre, all is mist and error and confusion, Charles Caleb Colton.  Oh, blindness to the future! kindly giv'n, That each may fill the circle mark'd by heaven, Alexander Pope. A circle of lovely, quiet people becomes the ring on my finger, Rumi.  The circle of knowledge commences close round a man and thence stretches out concentrically, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Unity of opinion is indeed a glorious and desirable thing, and its circle cannot be too strong and extended, if the centre be truth; but if the centre be error, the greater the circumference, the greater the evil, Charles Caleb Colton.  My joy, my grief, my hope, my love, Did all within this circle move! Edmund Waller.  

The second upload for today is “valentine-cupid”. I didn’t have any valentines in the house but I found some at church. One of the ladies had made hand drawn hearts for our food pantry guests. Another had spent some time creating hears on a stick. When I stopped at McDonalds I found that they had hears on the sides of their take out bags. 

The article is about another building where I took a couple of classes and didn’t realize at the time of its history. It is the Cultural Arts Center located in the middle of Columbus’ downtown area. It use to be the state armory building. As part of the façade there were octagonal brick towers at its four corners. There was a brick wall high enough that a tall person could peer over it. Its landscape hoverd near the Scioto River. As the article stated it was there long before high-rises dotted the Columbus skyline. It was originally built to be a fortress but that didn’t happen.  In 1812 in a place called the Plum Field, where the structure was located, the building became a prison. The men held there helped build the first Statehouse. There were plum trees on the land and were cleared as the prison “expanded”.In the beginning it held a few dozen men but once hold several hundred. As the National Road moved into Columbus around 1831, it was decided that the prison should be moved. Soon the building was demolished and rebuilt in 1861 as it exists today by prisoner labor as the Ohio State Arsenal. The first floor was a gun room. The second floor was open space and “column-free” with a ceiling 20 feet high. It once housed weapons and horses during the American Civil War. Historical artifacts remain. There is an eagle-and-shield from the battleship USS Ohio and a bell from the missile cruiser the USS Columbus. The structure was remodeled by the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department and became the Cultural Arts Center. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 18, 1974. 

I think we will be having air fried beer battered fish and fried tonight. 

Joy

                                  Ooooops

 February 12, 2023 thought for today, Old thanks cannot be used for new gifts. Italian Proverb

The church service today was a sort of Valentine-like theme. I didn’t quite connect story parts with the scripture but it was interesting. 

The first upload for yesterday was “this has wheels”. As I was waiting for my curb side pick up at Kroger, I decided to be alert for possibles for the photo assignments for today. Perfect....a grocery cart as well as the backside of an automobile. 

At times for differing reasons I seem to miss information for putting in the church bulletin. This week we had an instrumental solo as an anthem. I checked the information I was given but didn’t see which instrument it would be. I did read that it would be only a solo and not “accompanied (by a piano)”. So I read the composers description of the music and saw that it was written for the tuba and piano. I assumed, then that it would be a tuba. That’s what I put in the bulletin. It tuned out to be a trombone solo. It was announced (from the pulpit) that they didn’t think the instrument they were seeing was a tuba. That got a laugh. 

The second upload for yesterday was “fresh”. I had just come from the grocery store so the freshest thing I had in the house was the unopened groceries. After all the logo for Kroger is “fresh for everyone”. 

I, like so much of the world, am saddened by the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria and the number of people that were killed. It is heartening to see the number of people trying to help with rescues in any way they can. It’s also sad to see the death in the current war between the Ukraine and Russia. I keep thinking about that fact that one of these sad events is man made the other isn’t. The right circumstances and a good  man or men with freedom in mind could stop the one from going on and on but so far it’s not happening. 

I seem to be in a downer mood today so I think I will stop with my days happenings here. 

Today’s first photo a day upload is “mirror”. While I was in church, I was thinking about every where we may have mirrors in the building. In this room there were five mirrors. I took a shot of every one of them to decide when I pulled them up in the Photoshop ‘darkroom’. The corner of this mirror with the small vase with a posy of flowers won. 

The word today is child. Sweet childish days, that were as long As twenty days are now, William Wordsworth.  The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day, John Milton.  We could never have loved the earth so well if we had no childhood in it, George Eliot.  An honest man is always a child, Socrates.  Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only with life. A child is given to the universe to be educated, Frederick William Robertson. A torn jacket is soon mended, but hard words bruise the heart of a child, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Plato.  Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. Heraclitus. The child is father of the man. William Wordsworth.  From the depths of the West of Europe, a young child will be born of poor people, he who by his tongue will seduce a great troop; his fame will increase towards the realm of the East. Nostradamus.  The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. Henry Ward Beecher.  But the child's sob curses deeper in the silence than the strong man in his wrath! Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Genius is sorrow's child. John Adams.  Don't set your wit against a child. Jonathan Swift. 

The second upload for today was another beautiful piece of architecture in our church. The title on the assignment is  “hard”. This is one of strong, stable concrete columns in the sanctuary. 

The article is a story about bridges over the Scioto River. It relates how the architecture of bridges in general happen over the years as well as ways of crossing the river. The article opened with “The Scioto River and its neighbor, the Olentangy, which join near Downtown Columbus, have been at various times fickle and fragile, and at other times firm and forbearing”. Humans living in the area, Native Americans and ‘prehistoric mound builders’ never built bridges.  When these people needed to crossover the river they used other means, mostly boats/canoes. In 1797 Lucas Sullivant came to the area and bought land on the west bank of the forks of the Olentangy and the Scioto Rivers. He then built and formed what would become Franklinton. After he got the town started he returned to his home in Kentucky to ‘settle his affairs’. When he returned he discovered that the town that he had begun to build was gone due to a flood. He moved to a little higher ground and started again near a position which is now Gift Street. In 1801 he moved into his brick home in the middle of town. There was not bridge to cross the Scioto, it didn’t seem to be needed at that time. “The “High Banks Opposite Franklinton” was devoid of people, heavily forested” with an Indian mound and a ridge of plum trees and a pawpaw patch. People would get from one side of the river to the other by ‘fords’ ( The Old Ford, as it was called, was at the point where the Hocking Valley Railroad now crosses the river near the foot of Main Street) and canoe ferries (one of them was located near where the two rivers met). These are the ways people crossed the river for twenty years. In 1815 Mr. Sullivant built the first bridge. It was an uncovered plank-board bridge. People paid a fee for wagons and herds of animals to cross. Note: people walking to church didn’t have to pay. The bridge began to decay with use so in 1932 a new covered Broad Street bridge was built. It survived floods and was used for people and goods for many years. Since that first “covered” bridge there have been several replacements (uncovered) at Broad street with the latest having been opened in 1992. 

I think we will order in Ding Ho for dinner.

Joy

                          More bulk pick up??

 February 10, 2023 a thought for today, The righteous say little and do much. Jewish Proverb

The first upload for February 9 was “something in nature”. I saw this reflection in the puddle that was left in a parking lot after the rain from over night.

This is one of those “I love Fridays” Friday. There’s not much on the agenda giving me time to work on things that have been put on the back burne4r for a while. 

Yesterday’s printing session moved a little quicker than some others....there was no extra page to be inserted this week saving fifteen minutes of time and motion. There were others of my church family there in the church bringing in food for the food pantry this week. I could hear their voices and activity as I worked. 

Then next photo I uploaded yesterday was “diamond”. I had this shot in my archives from a couple of years ago when I stopped by the ball field on my way home from an errand.

The weather isn’t quite what I envisioned from the weather reports. They were saying warm for February so, after the cold we have had recently, I am thinking (dreaming?) 60 degrees. It’s not...the temperature at the bottom of my computer screen says “40". And as I look out the window no gorgeous blue sky, just blue gray (more gray than blue).

The first upload for today is “a corner”. This corner of my living room is where I have me indoor garden of house plants when the live during the winter months. 

The word today is carry.  Remember, as long as you live, that nothing but strict truth can carry you through the world, with either your conscience or your honor unwounded. Lord Chesterfield.  Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go. Martha Washington.  Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us. Charles Spurgeon.  Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these, they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve. Francis of Assisi. You don't carry in your countenance a letter of recommendation. Charles Dickens.  Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. James Russell Lowell.  To be happy, we must be true to nature and carry our age along with us. William Hazlitt. Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.   

The next upload was “F is for....”. This is another photo from the archives. It was taken at Franklin Park a year ago when I was on a photo outing.

This article is a bit about our history and well as informative. It is about “airships”, also called dirigibles. The title said they “once ruled the skies” a century ago. The description in the article is “giant airships that resembled huge sausages”. A bit of history here “people had been trying to take flight since the mythical Icarus and Daedalus (created wings made of feathers and wax to escape from Crete ....wings melted and he fell into the sea)”. Others have tried with gliders and hot air balloons. In 1842 there was a hot air balloonist in Columbus on a trip in his hot air balloon who “was at the mercy of prevailing winds”. Airships take flight by large gas bags.  At one time the gas was hydrogen which was highly flammable. Helium doesn’t seem to work as well but is safer. The article explains that there are three classes of airships....rigid, semi-rigid and non-rigid. That latter depends on internal pressure of the gas to maintain their shape. In 1905 there was an “early aviator” at the Ohio State Fair who captivated a fifteen-year-old who later built his own form of air travel. He attached a bicycle frame to a gas bag, used a sprocket wheel on the bicycle as a propeller. In 1907 he “manipulated it gracefully at an altitude of 200 feet for an hour”. He went on with other adventures. In 1911 he flew over the Continental Divide. In 1903 along came Wilbur and Orville Wright, aeronauts in Dayton Ohio. Biplanes of the time were made of silk and balsa wood and were hazardous. In the 1890s a man named Zeppelin began to develop “fully rigid dirigible (airship)” with multiple gas bags”. The first one was 420 feel long and 38 feet in diameter. After a trial period these “ships” were used for pleasure and business flights forming the first world airline. Gourmet dinners were served on board. It is said they were more comfortable than “sitting on a bamboo chair in the crowded interior of a Ford Trimotor airplane” also in the air in that time period. In 1929 Port Columbus opened. They were able to handle dirigibles. At the same time the “The American Insurance Union Citadel – now known as the LeVeque Tower – was completed in 1927 and called itself an American Air Harbor”. I was amazed to learn in the article that it was designed to “receive dirigible passengers to its top floor. That never happened”. The “day of the airship was passing” from 1925 and 1936 when some of the most famous airships crashed one being the Hindenburg. 

This is one of the days I had a third upload. Today it is titled “minimalist”. I found this one little leaf on my driveway after the rain yesterday. 

It’s pizza night again....yea!

Joy

                                        bulk pickup?