March 30, 2023 a thought for today, It is best to trust to two anchors. Danish Proverb

Here is another Thursday “in the books”. The printing went as anticipated. Patti came in to do her “work from home” on her lap top. So we had a little time to chat. I also got to meet the new sexton for the second time. He seems so frail for the job but sometimes appearances are deceiving, hopefully that is the case. 

One of the uploads for yesterday was “two flavours you enjoy”. I like lots of kinds of foods, to many due to diabetes and digestive issues but two I enjoy are Chamomile tea and dark chocolate, neither are totally forbidden in my diet. 

I scolded Sweet Pea a little harshly (not meaning too, just a little out of sorts on my part) last night and she seems to hold onto a hurt-feeling-kind-of-spirt for a while. So, I decided to take for a ride when I got home from the church. She was as happy-as-a-bug-in-a-rug when I got her leash out of the drawer. I guess that is “apology accepted”. 

Bob has had some health issues in the past few weeks. So now I have found him his own “family doctor” and he is being scheduled for several appointment involving tests of various sorts in the next few weeks. Lowell is handing those for us. 

The second upload for yesterday was “money”. I don’t have any monopoly money and this is all I have on hand. 

I got my new washer yesterday. Lowell came over to handle getting a little more done in being ready for the delivery truck. I didn’t have time to try it out yesterday so I am doing that today. It has all kinds of “bells and whistles” (and it is gorgeous) that I am going to have to play with to find the full affects. It is amazing how something new can raise the spirits.

Getting the washer delivered put a bit of a dent in my schedule. I had to take a day off from food pantry. A church friend of mine filled in. I have heard that they were almost as busy yesterday as the day before. I believe we had thirty clients Tuesday. 

The sun is shining like it would on a warm early spring day but the warm part is a little off kilter, as least it was to start the day. It is a little better by now. The sun has managed to warm things up a little. 

The first upload for today is “a souvenir”. This is a locket that my son gave me shortly after he went in the Marine Corp.

The word today is experience.  Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on, Samuel Butler.  Observation more than books, experience rather than persons, are the prime educators, A. Bronson Alcott.  Who then can so softly bind up the wound of another as he who has felt the same wound himself? Thomas Jefferson.  After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser, Benjamin Franklin. The light which experience gives is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Experience is the teacher of all things. Julius Caesar. The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. Emily Dickinson. Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience. Blaise Pascal. The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences. Henry Ward Beecher. Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. Henry David Thoreau. We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience. George Washington.  The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct. Marcus Tullius Cicero.  

The second upload for today is “keys”. I was going to shoot a bunch of keys that my son has collected. Then I decided to add a touch more interest and shoot keyboard keys. This one is on my tablet’s keyboard so there is a bit of color and glare. I’m guilty....my computer keyboard is a bit dusty in between the keys and hard to clean unless I pull out each key and clean that area around it. I didn’t have the time to do that today. 

Here is another way a person is helping others. This article is about a person who has found a way to help people with disabilities find jobs. The article starts out by mentioning that “labor shortage has helped some people with disabilities find jobs but many challenges remain”. The lady the article talks about has been specializing in employment services at the Center for Disability Empowerment. This service helps with housing, jobs, transpiration and other services. One of those she helped was a pole-vaulter in high school and collegiate. He had a traumatic brain injury at 25. He fell from a balcony. After the accident he was told that he was “too disabled to be employed”. He has speech and mobility “issues”.  They were able to find him a job with the Columbus Crew. Once he was able to get his job at with the “Crew’ he said he “was very happy that somebody was treating me like an actual human being.” Another person who was helped in finding employment is a lady who fell at home and was partially paralyzed. At that time she had children 10, 7 and 5. She battled through the injury to volunteer at high school plays and other activities. The person in the position to help get these folks paid work found her a position witch will allow her to help at the Ohio State University football games. She will be a Redcoat. People as Redcoats “operate elevators, scan tickets and assist fans in other ways”. These jobs and the assistance in getting them helps people to socialize and gives them some pride. The article pointed out some of the problems for people with disabilities is “fear — by all parties involved.... Would-be employees fear they’ll fail; companies fear the risk they perceive in hiring someone with disabilities”. Given a chance people with disabilities have much to offer.

I think we will have chicken fries and tatter tots and salads, macaroni, potato, cole slaw for dinner tonight. 

Joy  

    in my “around town” observation photos I come across many of these ..... partially empty drinks 

 March 28, 2023 a thought for today, Love's plant must be watered with tears, and tended with care. Danish Proverb

My first upload yesterday was titled “an old home”. I drove around with Sweet Pea looking for something I had in mind . I went to an old familiar neighborhood that has become heartbreakingly run down . I thought about using the photo I took there but I changed my mind and decided to us a house that I would call “an old home” rather than an old house. 

I didn’t sleep well and am not focusing this morning so it looks like it is going to be “one of those days”. I have the bulletin ready for the last bit of information, I had one delete to make so that caused a bit of reformatting. I’ll get the rest sometime today. 

Well the “one of those days” carried through to when I got to the church. Somehow I pushed a button at the wrong time and couldn’t get the car to turn off. One of the problems was that I didn’t have the car in park. I finally got it turned off with Tom’s support. 

My second upload for yesterday was “entrance”. This is the main entrance to my home. There is a lot to see, kind of.

We had a large number of families again today at pantry and another one at the very last minute. I have one of our new clients...a Russian that used his cell phone’s language app to converse. That’s a learning experience. I like the ease of communicating with our clients who may need the help that way. What a wonderful world. 

Bob is supposed to get the information from his blood tests today. I hope it is something easy to take care of. 

I am getting a new washer tomorrow. Bob “cleaned” a little in the basement (it needs a lot rather than a little) but it will have to do for tomorrow. I have to mover some other things at the top of the steps and behind the basement door before tomorrow too.  I think Bob will help when he gets home from the doctor and after dinner. 

The first upload for today is “a modern building”. I know of a couple near my home that are truly modern. There is one, and I took photos of it today, that is so modern that it stands out from those around it. It is located in another of the “run down” areas nearby. I don’t understand what the notion was for someone to build it so different than all the others around it. The one I chose is our new neighborhood library. It is ultra modern inside and out. 

The word today is expect.  It is in vain to expect our prayers to be heard, if we do not strive as well as pray, Aesop.  We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, Henry David Thoreau. The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools, Confucius.  The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us, Henry David Thoreau.  To wish was to  hope, and to hope was to expect, Jane Austen.  Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed... Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders. Henry David Thoreau.  Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish. Ovid.  He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. Francis Bacon. If you cannot mould yourself entirely as you would wish, how can you expect other people to be entirely to your liking? Thomas a Kempis.  Life is so constructed that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation. Charlotte Bronte. 

The last upload for today is “dark”. This one was taken a while back when I would go out at night now and then, I don’t do that anymore....early bedtimes. This was taken at a busy intersection in downtown Columbus. 

We experienced a bit of world history right here in Columbus’s early days in the form of Jinny Lind, a highly regarded singers of the 19th century. She was called the Swedish Nightingale. The article began with the “men and women who settled the Ohio Country in the wake of the American Revolution were a crude and unkempt lot”. They “settled this land and made it their own”. The article went on to say that was a generalization and that many of the people were literate and cultured. As with most peoples entertainment is important in life. The article said that in the earliest days of the city amusement might have been “bear baiting, ax throwing and ....imbibing”. As the years went by people wanted a more cultured city. In 1821 “an association of vocalists calling itself the Handel Society” formed. Traveling “artistes” came to the city with “circuses, carnivals and balloon ascensions”. The biggest event came as a brief visit from a lady named Jenny Lind. She was a professional musician from the age of 8. She was friends with such people as Hans Christian Andersen. She preformed in a “triumphant tour” in Great Britain in 1849. She began the end of her career in “public performances”. To help her schedule these performances she met P.T. Barnum. He has promoted all kinds of attractions “from trained elephants to Tom Thumb”. In 1849 he produced an American tour for Jenny Lind. She wanted to make money for charitable purposes. She made a 150-city tour at $1,000 per place. It was extremely successful. She split with Barnum and “negotiated appear4ances on her own”. One of those was on November 4, 1851 in Columbus. The concert was held in Odeon Hall. The tickets were limited in number and sold for $2-$4. According to an Ohio State Journal news piece on that date, “It was the most brilliant, best dressed .....and best-looking house we have ever seen in Columbus. … We are informed that about 1,000 persons, a large number of whom were females, occupied the streets and sidewalks in the vicinity of the hall.” 

I think we are having salmon in the air fryer for dinner. 

Joy

                                                                        ???

 March 26, 2023 a thought for today, One man is not bad because another is good. Danish Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “sunset”. I shot this one a while back when sunset was in full view with a sky full of clouds too.

How often in a sermon has something been described with such knowledge that you can “feel” it, “experience” it in your mind.....for instance a mind’s image of a two-mile walk from this place to that place in a time when walking was the main source of transportation.....of a grave sight that is down stone steps in a “cave” like structure so close in space that a medium sized person bumps their head....and that Jesus resurrected a man in that kind of space....how often is it spoken so meaningfully in describing a short scripture that Jesus wept, mentioned so that you could feel him weep....all of these because of the depth of the feeling passed on by the person giving the message makes that life time have more sense and leading to a better understanding of spiritual life in this time. That is my today’s church experience. I hope there are more like it. She speaks it as though she has researched the facts of what she is saying so that she knows what she says is true and she is the type of gentle, real spirt that she wouldn’t say it if she didn’t know it as fact in her heart. How lucky we are for her to bring us a message of peace and real love.

My second upload yesterday was “a motel”. This closest one to my house was not far from our grocery curb side pick up so that was an easy capture for the photo of the day. 

We are going through the processes of getting a new washing machine.....picking one, preparing the path to getting it in place when it comes, ordering it and arranging a delivery time. 

This is going to be my usual kind of Sunday....a day to reflect and refresh for the coming week. I do have one thing to do for the church first....upload the taped service since the streaming is not working. The first portion (there are three on this memory card) is uploading as I write. 

The first upload for today was titled “something timeless”. I thing faith is timeless. This is a symbol of that timelessness.  

The word today is excellence.  It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible, Aristotle.  Let each become all that he was created capable of being, Thomas Carlyle. Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued, Johann von Goethe.  Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world, George Eliot. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit, Aristotle. One shining quality lends a luster to another, or hides some glaring defect, William Hazlitt. With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it, Aristotle. Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act rightly because we are excellent in fact we achieve excellence by acting rightly, Plato. In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life,  Aristotle. 

The next upload for today is “rain and fog”. I don’t know that it was raining when I shot this. It was misty and may have rained a little heavier just before the shoot.

I thought this might be an interesting article about an exhibit at COSI. There is “Memory Machine” at COSI that is a collection of recordings of a one man’s “sounds from his world travels”. He wanted to share the sounds he heard in his travels, something different from what most others bring back, photos and movies, from their travels. He said that whenever he “felt a special pace or historical landmark” he would record the sounds in area. Some of his visits were Switzerland, Germany and France. The “Memory Machine” at COSI is “a motion-activated sound sculpture with micro controllers, an amplifier and speakers. The machine is on the exhibit through November at COSI”. The article calls this sculpture and its sounds “electronic art”. The author of this particular unique art, a former instructor at Columbus College of Art and Design, says that he recorded and shares “claps of thunder in the Swiss Alps to the bustling crowds around the Eiffel Tower”. He says the “Memory Machine” allows the mimicking of the human experience.  One of the scenes he recorded and shares are the sounds of a street scene in Dresden, a “gallery hop-like evening”. It was more than seeing the people at such an event it was/is the sounds of that experience. He explains that another offer of this experience is an offer to the “visually impaired”. He has recorded sounds around Ohio and Canada and the falling waters at Niagara. The actual “Memory Machine” itself is made of reclaimed materials. He hopes the experience will encourage people to “open their ears and ..minds” to appreciate sounds around them and to,  perhaps, offer sounds of other cultures. 

Dinner will be take-out from somewhere today.....maybe Ding Ho

Joy

                                                                       over the hill

March 24, 2023 a thought for today, The generous man grows rich in giving, the miser poor in taking. Danish Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “egg(s)”......sunny side up.

I got an early start. After the virtual visits I got ready and left for church to meet Dorothy so that we could finish the monthly newsletter. We got it done in our usual time frame....again (in case I have said it before ).... we work well together. We share comments about the job we are doing as well as comparing our life styles and age experiences which are much the same. As we were finishing, Patti came to do some work and our new “on probation” sexton came in about the same time.

Sue helped me with the laundry at the Laundromat store. I am so use to a washer and dryer in my own home that I really don’t have much experience at a Laundromat. There were a few times in my younger days that I did have to use Laundromats but it is more difficult at my age. It is hard to decide which is more uncomfortable going up and down the basement stairs or carrying bags of dirty clothes to the car, out of the car into the Laundromat then in reverse when done. 

Another upload for yesterday was “your desk from above”. This is a little neater than it is most of the time. It gets straightened when the computer gets shut down at dinner time. 

With the annual report out last week and the monthly newsletter finished today I think I am going to have a more relaxed day today. Cleaning up some dished in the sink and running the dish washer may be the only other productivity today. 

The first upload for today is “ a piece from your favorite game”. The only “games” I play are on my computer (digital) and they are called “lumosity... brain games.... brain exercises”. I am finding that they keep me thinking more clearly and able to concentrate better....memory, attention, and cognitive issues like solving problems. This game causes you to find two objects alike and place them together in a box at the bottom of the page then they “disappear”. 

The word today is equal and/or equality.  Equity is that idea of justice which contravenes the written law, Aristotle.  Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven, Yiddish proverb.  Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder, Charles Caleb Colton. The proper man understands equity, the small man profits, Confucius.  Christ reasserted the unity of the race; the equality of all men before God, Joseph Parrish Thompson. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, Thomas Jefferson.  The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. Aristotle.  There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart. Jane Austen.  To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction. Isaac Newton.  All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince. Plato.  By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments. Thomas Aquinas.  Men's indignation, it seems, is more excited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior. Thucydides.  Perfect love cannot be without equality, Scottish Proverbs.  Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact, Honore de Balzac.  I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy. Thomas Paine. 

My next upload for today is “downtown”. Here is a view of Columbus downtown up close (and around a corner).

This is article is a refreshing story about a girl and a way of teaching sign language. A seventeen year old girl found a way to teach sign language  to a kindergarten class for her senior high school project. The article said “getting 5-year-olds to sit still and arrange their fingers to form words in American Sign Language isn’t easy”. She said she got the idea for this method when she was taking, and having some difficulty, in a Spanish class, so she switched to an American Sign Language class. She then developed an idea of using gloves with color painted dots to teach the class. With this method she could tell the young children to use the color of the dots instead of this finger or that. Her teacher said she had never had a student use sign language as a senior project. The student also used her mother as a “test subject”. She said on the very fist day of the class with the kids, within twenty minutes they go all the way through the alphabet. She seemed excited that they “got through three days of work I’d planned out in one day.” She began by giving each of the kids a black gloves with the painted dots along with signs besides the alphabet in categories of number, food, as well as the alphabet. Her early instruction was “Put your red dot in between your blue and your white.....as the students arrange their fingers to make an “m.” Later there as instruction without the gloves using other hand signs for certain animals and foods. She will write a paper on the experience and be graded before graduation. The class was done a little while ago and now when she walks by the kindergarten room the student give signs in their new language....sign language. 

It’s that time of week again....Pizza!

Joy

                                  on the side....

 

 March 22, 2023 a thought for today, When the lamps in the house are lighted it is like the flowering of lotus on the lake. Chinese Proverb

One of the uploads for March 21 is “things you collect”. One of the major things I “collect” are all kinds of arts and crafts supplies. This is only part of them. 

I finished both the bulletin and the newsletter after I received  a quick extra. I got the anthem insert typed for the bulletin. I got a last minute information for the bulletin with several deletes a witch meant making a large white space with nothing in it that needed filled so that took some more time. Also the same delete on the newsletter so that meant even more space to fill at the last minute. It took about half an hour to find information for both spots. I was trying to get it done so that I could get a couple of personal things done before I went to food pantry. I had to put most of those few things on the list for the time I have when I get home to fixing dinner. 

Another upload for yesterday is “tree”. I have lots of photos of trees but I wanted one today that I shot

today. So this is one of my neighbor’s trees taken today. 

Yesterday’s food pantry numbers were well over our norm which is nice. It keeps us busy the whole time we are there for the day. I had to leave a couple of minutes earlier than I usually do for a doctor appointment.  Today we had a few more clients over what we have been getting except for yesterdays numbers so that is two days in a row with a good number of people. Today, we had two come in as we were closing down. But just within the time we are open. 

Now I have to play catch up to try to get things done before I put things on hold to get dinner started. I tried getting one of my photos a day while I was at the church. I will need a little darkroom (Photoshop) time to get them ready for upload and then find the other one I need.

So my day at home has been top speed. On the one hand it is nice to keep busy on the other it feels like a race track....racing against the clock....I am one of those type A personalities, darn.

An upload for today is titles “a lucky object”. I chose this “object” as lucky one for me for many reasons. It has become a friend when I am having a stress moment. It has taught me to be more observant of goings on around me. It had shown me thing myself as well as other tend to overlook.....life beyond my own in many cases. It is lucky, it is life calming, it is a teacher....lucky. 

The word for today is envy.  Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy, Franois de la Rochefoucauld . Envy is a littleness of soul, which cannot see beyond a certain point, and if it does not occupy the whole space, feels itself excluded, William Hazlitt. Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind, Buddha. A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones, Proverbs 14:30.  Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nothing sharpens sight like envy, Thomas Fuller.  Oh, what a bitter thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes, William Shakespeare.  Envy shoots at others and wounds itself, English Proverb. Covetousness, which is idolatry, The Bible.  Envy and hatred try to pierce our neighbor with a sword. But the blade cannot reach him unless it first passes through our own body, St. Augustine of Hippo.  Envy always implies conscious inferiority wherever it resides, Pliny the Elder.  Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace. Petrarch.  When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad. Tacitus. 

The other upload for today is “vintage”. I am not sure how old this dishwasher actually is but personally is looks like something that fits the description of vintage. 

Lets take a look at one persons view of empty nester. The author stated that when it became time in their lives, he and his wife, to face the “empty nest” time they ended up letting an “unborn child make the choice”. The choice hadn’t been made when they went to dinner and got the news that they were about to become grandparents. This made their choices take a new direction. Would there be remodeling rather than a move. There were surrounding areas of their home that he was “fond of.... a ravine in the backyard, a bike path, near a bus line, the school system and the neighbors”. He went on to say they really didn’t think of moving when the last child left the nest and now the real estate market wasn’t quite right. That brought up the occasion to think about moving or remodeling. The husband and wife had different of ideas of where they would want to move and make their new home. They debated about the two areas they had picked, one in one area and the other a slightly different neighborhood, and the pros and cons of each. During the period of the decision making they visited a house that had been remodeled in their neighborhood. One of their questions was moving to a neighborhood of empty nesters there would be a lot of other ‘baby boomers”. So they looked more seriously at the remodeling idea. There would be more bedrooms than they need now. On the other hand they would have money to fix things that bothered them about the house. Now there was time to consider having the grandchild for visits, perhaps overnights. So they signed the contracts and made some payments. Now there are “paint chips....countertop material are lying here and there”.  There will be a “telltale dumpster...a more open kitchen with new fixtures...damage from an old roof leak will finally get repair”. In the coming years the house will once again “be to much for us” and time to sell. “In the meantime, we'll enjoy the improvements...... thank my future grandchild for prodding us into a decision”.

I think it will be the most recent stand by....air fried beer battered fish. 

Joy

                                     sad but regular happenings in life

      

 March 20, 2023 a thought for today, He who knows his heart mistrusts his eyes. Chinese Proverb

One upload for yesterday was “a slice”. What better slice than that of a pizza. 

This has been a full day of some stress for me. I had some phone calls to try to make appointments for Bob. He is having a health issue that needs attended to. I think I made a good start in that direction. He has an appointment for tomorrow. One of the phone calls I made couldn’t help for over two months. 

Another upload for yesterday was “car”. I decided to get the back side of the two cars in the driveway. 

I got a good start on both the bulletin and the newsletter. I have food pantry for the next two days but I think with a little luck I can get both of them done before Thursday. 

When looking out the window I see a bit of spring seeming to be  making its way into our city although it is still a bit “chilly” to put it mildly, outside. 

An upload for today is “something useful”. This is one of the rollators in our house. It  comes in handy when the legs have had the last they can take for the day. 

The word for today is enough. Life, if well lived, is long enough, Lucius Annaeus Senec.  A word to the wise is enough. Plautus.  It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them, Francois de la Rochefoucauld. No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar, Abraham Lincoln. Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. Archimedes.  Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  The Lord is greater than all: I have said enough. Saint Patrick.  Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. Hans Christian Andersen. We build too many walls and not enough bridges. Isaac Newton. Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. Emily Dickinson.  It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau.  A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows. Francis of Assisi.  In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. Blaise Pascal.  How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them. Benjamin Franklin.  The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough, John Adams.  If you desire faith, then you have faith enough. Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  

A second upload for today is “fence”. I decided to use this one of the double fences between my house and my neighbor’s house. One is for someone’s privacy the other for common respect of another’s space. 

This is supposed to be an article about some “legal amusements” in Columbus. Here are some examples. In 1875 Corbin’s saloon in Westerville was “wrecked by an explosion of gunpowder”. The owner had seven leading citizens and “temperance” people arrested for “destruction of property”. After a court appearance and a Grand Jury the defendants were discharged. But on another arrest on a peace warrant for the same incident the judge stated “no guilty” with a judgement against Corbin for costs. During the trial one of the attorneys for the prosecution  “intimated pretty strongly by his questions that one of the defendants, a pronounced temperance man, would himself occasionally take a drink”. With that he made a charge in the “form of this interrogatory.... ‘Now. Mr. ________, don’t you think that you and I can drink more whisky in a given time than any other two men in the state?” The court, other counsel and audience were “appalled”. The gentleman “adjusting his spectacles to a proper focus, slowly and deliberately replied to his accuser, “I don’t know but that is so, and I wouldn’t have to drink any either.” On another occasion a man was on trial for stealing hogs. He said that he bought the hogs “of a stranger” then he gave his note for the purchase price. Then he left the stand, his counsel had not asked him certain questions and called him back. He asked when was it your gave the note, before or after you “stole the hogs”? The defendant answered ‘It was before’. Everyone laughed and a verdict “guilty as charged” was announced. On another occasion a native of Ireland wanted to become a citizen of the US. Before a judge swore him in he was asked whether he had ever read the Constitution. The man said he had not and that he could not read. So the judge told him that he “had better first inform himself as to what the Constitution was”. On the lunch break a his counsel took the Irish man to the back yard and read the Constitution to him. Back in court the counsel said to the judge that he had read the Constitution to his friend and “I renew my motion that the requisite oath to support the Constitution of the United States be now administered to him, and that he be admitted to citizenship.” The judge granted the motion.

This is another of those days for a third upload. This one was titled “ in the style of Piet Mondrain” and is my attempt at one of his earlier styles, Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. His artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements.

I think it is going to be hamburgers for dinner tonight. 

Joy

            ????

 March 18, 2023 a thought for today, Just scales and full measure injure no man. Chinese Proverb

Here is another week end that the twins won’t be visiting here. There is a bit of a situation making it apparently more appropriate for them to be at a different house for the weekend. So it’s just Bob and I for the day. 

The first upload for yesterday was “a country road or a city street”. This city girl chose this one of many that I take of our city streets. 

We just got back from picking up the groceries. It amazes me that how smart and cognizant Sweet Pea seems to be of what is about to happen. I have noticed now that every Saturday when we are about to head out to the store she senses it and runs to get her angry bird toy to signal she is ready to go. I notice that we are making any different kinds of body language that signifies “Saturday” and “a car ride to the store is the destination”.  

The thermometer is reading one degree below freezing right now although the sun is bright and inspiring. The day after tomorrow is the first day of spring. I just checked the prediction for the rest of the week. It appears as though we will be above the thirty-degree space every day after tomorrow for the rest of the week. Maybe it is going to move in slowly.....and stay for a while.....I hope. 

The second upload for yesterday was “green”. In the winter in Ohio we don’t have a lot of green, at least not as much in spring and summer. But I did find this one .

After some work in the kitchen I will be done with projects for the day.....I think. Maybe I will get a couple of more little items done on the newsletter. Yesterday was make up day for me after the problems with the laundry on the day before so I didn’t expect to make any headway on anything except getting the photos done for a two-day period instead of the usual one a day. I had missed an upload on Thursday. I ended up having a little extra time and got a pretty good start on the newsletter then. 

The first upload for today is “your most comfortable shoes”. My most comfortable and well worn are slippers. They are on my feet at all time when I ma in the house. Two of my great grand children got them for my for Christmas two years ago so they are also my most favorite “shoes”. 

The word for today is emotion.  Old man — don't let's forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives, and that we obey them without knowing it, Vincent Van Gogh.  Our passions are true phœnixes: as the old burn out, the new straight rise up out of the ashes, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  Though a man of quick temper, he possessed, as a counterbalance, a warm heart, Charles Gibbon. Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. Plato. Whatever your heart clings to and confides in that is really your God your functional savior. Martin Luther.  There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed, Buddha. To give vent now and then to his feelings, whether of pleasure or discontent, is a great ease to a man's heart, Francesco Guicciardini.  Where the heart lies, let the brain lie also. Robert Browning.   Life is a tram of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them they proved to be many colored lenses which paint the world in their own hue. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Men decide many more problems by...emotion than by reason. Marcus Tulius Cicero.  Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive.  Charlotte Brontë.  Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and look at the stars. This practice should answer the question. Lao Tzu.  When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master. Benedict de Spinoza.  Answer me, you who believe that animals are only machines. Has nature arranged for this animal to have all the machinery of feelings only in order for it not to have any at all? Voltaire.   

The second upload for today is “animal (wild)”. We don’t have to many “wild” animals, as least ones that are readily seen, in day light hours. So I picked this one from my archives. It was taken on a trip to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Here are some thoughts about a happening in this era of life.... “Software-generated chatbot”.  The article says that “ChatGPT is software that uses artificial intelligence to mimic human communication in supposedly revolutionary ways” and to some of us it is “eerily lifelike” or “creepy”. As the article goes on it mentions that every new form of communication, “telephone to texting” is meant to connect the people they choose....because it is efficient. But often we get a “machine voice” when we try making contact for information. As a difference, the article goes on, in person people look you in the eye and “read non-verbal cues and insist you meet their demands..... time-consuming.” So now, a lot of the time, we are on the phone calling for information or whatever, we are hearing “your call is very important to us”... despite all evidence to the contrary”. The author of the story said that, in wanting to talk about income taxes or washing machine repairs or a gall bladder problem he wants human contact not a machine. We have the need to explain small details of our concerns and to hear someone who seems to understand those concerns. He goes on to say that he leaves voice mails or texts in hopes of getting a human response. In the closing of the article he says as time goes by and our time in history is recorded we will be distinguished as turning over a majority of our communication to machines (artificial intelligence) because companies could save money....and these thoughts leave him “almost speechless”.  

We are having chili mac for dinner tonight. 

Joy

                                   no words

 March 16, 2023 a thought for today, A book holds a house of gold. Chinese Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “a fleeting moment”. Sitting at a stop light doesn’t always feel like “fleeting moment” it is actually a moment in time. 

Things went really well  at church with the printing. I got the bulletin, the annual report, and a piece for Connie all printed and placed appropriately. Patti came in just before I was finished so we had a chance to chat a little. 

I hadn’t had any breakfast and it was almost 10:30 so I stopped at McDonalds for a brunch. And took a few photos on the way home.

The second up load for yesterday was “bird (perched). This bush seems to be a meeting place. While looking out the window, I have seen up to a dozen birds flying in mass and landing to perch on this bush.

When I got back home, I started the laundry. About ten minutes after I got back upstairs from starting the laundry there was a very suspicious sound coming from the basement. Upon investigation I found that the washer was not working as it should so I had a washer full of wet clothes. I got as much water out of the washer and loaded the wet clothes in two trash bags. I called Sue home from her errands to come home and help me get it all to the Laundromat. So we spent about three hours this afternoon there. Now I am going to have to shop for a washer. This one is somewhere over twenty years old so I imagine it would be cheaper to buy a new one than to have this one fixed. There goes the money I have been saving for a new computer.

The “incident (washer breakdown)” put a squash on all my “personal” computer tasks for the day. My photo a day images will have to be a day late for a change. 

Yesterday was another of those days when I had a third photo of the day upload. This one was titled “bread or pasta”. I was making homemade egg noodles and cooking them in brown gravy when I captured the shot. 

That quick half a sandwich of this morning was all I had to eaten so I was hungry when we got home from the Laundromat. I grabbed a half of a peanut butter sandwich and 15 Cheezits. I have found that if I am careful about how many of the Cheezits that I eat I can better control the carbs than when I was eating them by the hand full a couple of times a day. 

I was hoping to get a start on the church newsletter so I could get ahead of a rush to get it all done but that’s not going to happen today. 

The first up load for today was “a treasure you found”. I don’t know how much of a treasure this is but I found it as I was rummaging through some old things in the basement. I’m I would not have been excited to use this to smooth the wrinkled and a bushel basket of laundry to be ironed. 

The word for today is effort.  We aim above the mark to hit the mark, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  One saves oneself much pain, by taking pains; much trouble, by taking trouble, Augustus William Hare.  To do two things at once is to do neither, Publilius Syrus.  Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character. Heraclitus.   Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times. Aeschylus.  Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved. Ralph Waldo Emerson.   Know what thou canst work at, and work at it like a Hercules, Thomas Carlyle.  To rank the effort above the prize may be called love, Confucius.   I am like the sick sheep that strays from the rest of the flock. Unless the Good Shepherd takes me on His shoulders and carries me back to His fold, my steps will falter, and in the very effort of rising, my feet will give way. St. Jerome.  What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party. Henry David Thoreau.  The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence. Ralph Waldo Emerson.   If you can walk, you can run, Publilius Syrus.  

The next upload for today was “animal (pet)”. I have been using a lot of photos of Sweet Pea and decided to use this one of Sugar. She is not longer with us but is a sweet memory. 

Here’s another story about one of the malls mentioned earlier that is full of memory and is to be demolished, in truth, due to lack of interest and care, it is has become and eye sore and probably dangerous. This one is closer to home, it is Westland Mall. There are huge holes in the parking lots. In the summer time large noise bands set there. They can be heard three miles away. According to the article there are 599 “blighted and vacant structures throughout Ohio”....Westland is one of them.  It went on to say that “by ridding our state of eyesores that are hindering development and impacting property values, we can revitalize our communities and attract new investments”. I prefer to see “the old” be redeveloped and used once again for useful purposes but this is a second option, and the most often used I think. Westland opened in the 1960s. In the beginning was an “open mall”. Later in 1980 is was enclosed. I noticed as the article was written it included some other people’s memories of this particular mall. One lady said she remembered her mom taking her to Lazarus at the mall first to visit the restaurant on the upper floor. She remembered getting her ears pierced her and later when she was a teen, “loitered” all day. She noted the leather store that was in the mall and how she got a “green suede jacket”. The article ended with much my same wishes “hope the property will be redeveloped so generations to come can make new memories. Westland Mall is scheduled to be demolished this spring or summer.”

We are having left overs for dinner tonight.

Joy

                                     really?

 March 14, 2023 a thought for today, Dogs have so many friends because they wag their tails, not their tongues. Chinese Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “bottle”. I wanted to shy away from a coke or Pepsi bottle so I choose this one that I use some times as a vase. 

Our meeting last night met with some heavy conversation with generally means it comes with two sides. We got it settled with a lot of thought and talk and a vote.

I sent this week’s bulletin out for review. I also got some touch up information for the annual report. All are ready to print on Thursday. It feels good to have things done ahead of time without a deadline hanging over my head. 

Lowell and Rebecca are going to Florida for Lexie’s birthday party so I have asked them to take the paper quilled pictures I made the kids along with the annual calender that I am late getting to them. I haven’t got them packed yet. I plan on putting plenty of bubble wrap around them so they don’t get bumped around. It’s not Lexie’s birthday gift I sent that earlier. It’s an “I love you and I am thinking of you” gift....one thing for each of the four of them. Then I have two more boxes like those to get delivered.   

The second upload for yesterday was “your favorite mug”. I don’t use a mug for my tea and I have saved very few.  But did have this one from left from my husband. This was his favorite when he was at work at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. 

Our new sexton (janitor) is supposed to be starting work at the church today. I hope it works out. We have had a rough time finding one and from what I heard a few shaky moments with this one but it may have turned around now. We need a sexton badly since our church is used daily by different groups and needs attention after they leave and before others come in. 

Spring is due to arrive here in six days but it feels like winter is trying to make up for the mild days that were around for the biggest part of its 2023 season. The thermometer is presently reading a couple of degrees below freezing. 

One of the uploads for today is “something I don’t understand”. This, one for me, was that I don’t know
why the yellow caution tape would be wrapped around a telephone pole. 

The word today is easy.  That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly, Thomas Paine.   Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. Lao Tzu.    All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. Galileo Galilei.  To rule is easy, to govern difficult. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress. Charles Dickens. Nothing is easy to the unwilling. Thomas Fuller. Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  It is easy to give advice from a port of safety. Friedrich Schiller.  I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. Benjamin Franklin. It is well not to lend too easy an ear to accusations, Publilius Syrus.  It is easy to cut down the tree of liberty, but not so easy to restore it to life, Toussaint Louverture.  It takes hard writing to make easy reading, Robert Louis Stevenson. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all things easy, Benjamin Franklin.  Speeches are like babies-easy to conceive but hard to deliver, Aristotle. 

The second upload for today is “bird (flying)”. I’m not a bird watcher though I like to watch when I happen to see them within my sight. This was an “accident”. There were several birds landing on this roof top and the taking off something like a military touch and go. I wanted to get a capture of several of them at a time perched as the single one left is. It just so happened that one of the birds took off just as I pressed the capture button. 

Back to a bit of history to make our city a place to explore. It is about an old church that has left behind its bell. It was called the Blue Church on Blue Church Road. The road was named for the church. The church no longer stand but it left a bit of it’s being....a bell. The church stood for over one hundred years. Its name was originally Kingston Presbyterian Church. At some point in its existence its name changed to the Blue Church. In the beginning the church was painted a grey color. Over the years the grey faded to a light blue. It was built in 1827. Not only was it used for religious services but also “community socials, school events, and Christmas pageants until about 1953". When it was built in 1827 there were settlers living in “remote” log cabins near by. The church was a place for residents to meet and socialize. There were World War I rallies and grade school graduations in this historic building. It was demolished in 1975 but it left many memories and the bell acts as a reminder. One of its members was interviewed before the building was demolished. He told of how he was the first one there on Sunday morning and he would ring the bell and “warmed up the place”. Along with those duties he had other through the week. He used a wagon to deliver the stained glass windows to the church in a remodeling. During tough winters the church was a ‘refuge’ for Kingston Township. There were annual suppers, songs and games on Children’s days, as well as a two-week period extended services fo social and spiritual comfort. A lady who was interviewed about the church in 1955 told stories about evergreen trees lit with candles and the chocolates and oranges that were passed by Santa with plenty of carols. By the middle of the 20th century it was a “struggle to keep the community alive”. One of the past parishioners told the person doing the interview that the “Presbyterians wouldn’t send us ministers anymore. And so, you know, it had to close”. At the same interview someone mentioned that she “doesn't remember finances being the biggest issue in the end....The bigger thing was that they didn’t want to send ministers out here to small little churches anymore”. Throughout the 1960s there were those who tried to save the building but to no avail. It was eventually “deemed unsafe”. For seventeen years the church sat empty and “theft and decay” took over. The bell that was rung many time to summon folks to come was saved and is “mounted on a small blue brick memorial with a plaque commemorating “Old Blue Church.”” The land it occupied is now a cemetery named the Blue Church Cemetery. Revolutionary War to Korean War vets are buried there. According to the article many people in Delaware have forgotten about the church however the Sunbury Halter and Saddle 4-H Club visit to pay respects to the veterans.

It’s going to be coneys’ for dinner tonight. 

Joy

                     No available trash receptacle? Just toss it?

 March 12, 2023 a thought for today, Don't use oiled paper to wrap up fire. Chinese Proverb

I was thinking we had bible study before the service this morning so I arrived at church an hour early this morning. Well, actually it wasn’t a whole hour early it was half hour early because we had a choir rehearsal at ten. I have been “forgetting” things more than usual the last few days.  Along with the bible study this morning, forgetting to put the anthem in the bulletin for this morning. I know it comes with age but I think in this case I have been concentrating on getting my diabetes back in balance and letting other things take a back seat. After all, I spend time every day specifically in “brain exercise games” purposely to keep my memory as good as I can.😊

The first upload I made for March 11 was for the assignment “contents of your junk drawer”. This particular drawer is very narrow and handy for the smaller items belonging in a “junk drawer”. 

The message at church this morning was given by a long time member. He usually gives a very good presentation. For me, this morning it was a little slow but then it could be my frame of mind right now. There was a donut fellowship this morning but I took a pass for this time. I didn’t want to be tempted until I am back to being a little more sure of my food choices. But I do miss the “bonding” that takes place during fellowships. 

My second upload for yesterday was titled “soap”. I decided to use the Dial hand soap dispenser on the kitchen sink for my “prop” for this photo. 

We had a bit of snow this morning. This has been a very mild winter to snow has been on the rare side for the usual Ohio winters. There wasn’t much and it was gone quickly. I let Sweet Pea stay out a little longer than usual for her first-thing-in-the-morning-outing. Her hairs were covered with snow flakes. 

As I am writing this missive, I am downloading (multitasking) a memory card to the church facebook page.....our streaming system is having some difficulties but the camera is still recording so to make up for the breaks in the streaming I am asked to download so members can still see the service albeit not ‘live’. 

One of the uploads for today was titled “repeat”. I had some time this morning when I arrived at church so I was adding some photos to my assignment and archives at the same time. This is one of the images I generated, several arches In the architecture in the sanctuary. 

The word for today is dream.  Dreams are the hushing of the bodily senses, that the eyes of the Spirit may open, Harriet  Beecher Stowe.  A dream itself is but a shadow. William Shakespeare.   Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams? Alfred Lord Tennyson.  Dreams are the touchstones of our character. Henry David Thoreau.  Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake? Leonardo da Vinci. When the legends die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness, Tecumseh.  I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind, Emily Bronte.  God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The interpretation of dreams is a great art, Paracelsus. It is a happiness to wonder, it is a happiness to dream, Edgar Allan Poe. Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man, Pliny The Elder. There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adams.  You're something between a dream and a miracle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. Abraham Lincoln. 

The second image upload for today is “pens”. I was able to take this photo this morning while I was able to capture several photos for today’s photos and the archives. 

The article  title sounded interesting so I thought I would peruse, disseminate and share. It touches on the subject that mental health can benefit from doing good deeds. A professor at the OSU did a study on this subject and concluded that “kind acts can improve social connections, which appears to help those suffering from anxiety and depression”. This study started as a dissertation. There were studies of other researchers across the country included in this project. One incident that was sighted was a “paying it forward” event at a Starbucks drive thru. This happening apparently helped improve social connection which is “one of the most important ingredients for well-being in life”. The study apparently further proved that kind acts can “reduce the extent that people fixate on other people’s perceptions of them”. There were one hundred and twenty-two participants in Columbus involved in this study. They were given tasks that could be assigned without psychological training or therapy sessions. The individuals conducting the tests  wanted to noted “that acts of kindness are not necessarily a substitute for more traditional treatments and urge people experiencing distress to contact a mental health professional for an evaluation”. The project lasted for a five-week period and resulted with some impact. Some of the good acts were as simple as baking cookies for friends or strangers. One of the participants was a senior at OSU and a “socially anxious person”. She reported that she was given the assignment in a psychology class in 2022. She did three kind acts a day for a week. Some of her assignments were holding open doors, complimenting people, and “leaving sticky notes bearing positive affirmations in bathrooms across campus”. She said from her part in the study she learned that “even small things made a difference” in the other people as well as in her own life. 

I think it will be Taco Bell for dinner tonight (I have to check some sugar and carb content first).

Joy

                             this abandoned cart was in a rather “scenic” spot