April 29, 2023 a thought for today, He who buys useless things, later sells things that he needs. Japanese Proverb

Here it is Saturday again!! A wonderful day of the week (they all are, I guess, with each having a special feature in our week....in mine, at least). 

One of the uploads for yesterday was “simple joy”. I get a comfy feeling with the modern (compared to my last twenty-year-old car) signs and signals on the front panel of the car. 

Today, as the habit has grown, is grocery-curb-side-pick-up-day, for Bob, me and Sweet Pea. We got our task done along with a chat with Annie, our mostly usual “delivery (to the car)” girl.  She has had a major change in her life to share with us. It was a sad change but she looked happier for it, one of those kinds of changes that became a learning experience. 

Once the groceries were put up, I started work on finding my photos for today. One is from the archives (from way, way back....the beginning of my photography lifetime journey).  This photo is so old I made a digital copy of it for my archives. I was the family photographer back then, even had my own darkroom in the basement of the house in a room that use to be a room to store coal for our furnace (called a coal bin). I must have had a self timer for that photo even way back then because we were the only four people in the house and I was in the photo. For the other photo of the day I have to do a set up of potato chips. So while Bob is out mowing the lawn I will be getting that set-up set up.

Another upload for yesterday was “your (my) neighborhood”. This is an image of my clean and peaceful neighborhood. 

The weather is getting more and more like spring each day. The sun is still on the “in and out” process today but the air temperature is progressively more comfortable. 

My first upload for today is called “family”. I mentioned the search for this photo and a little about its “history”. The original was in color but it was so badly aged and had a deep yellow tinge. So I did some “recovery” work on it and used a filter to give a painted affect. 

The word for today is individuality.  No one should part with their individuality and become that of another, William Ellery Channing.  Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly, Saint Francis De Sales.  Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures, Henry Ward Beecher. There is just one life for each of us: our own, Euripides.  To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  The earth is a beehive; we all enter by the same door but live in different cells, Michel de Montaigne.  Who can say more than this rich praise, that you alone are you? William Shakespeare.   If God had wanted me otherwise, he would have created me otherwise, Johann Von Goethe.  Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not, Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. If everyone is thinking alike then no one is thinking, Benjamin Franklin.  A man is known by the books he reads, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  

The other upload for today is titled “potato chips”. I couldn’t get too artistic with this shot. It is plain and simple. 

I saw a story on the PBS show Columbus Neighborhoods Thursday evening and they were telling about this bakery so I wanted to share it. The article is about a “World Class Bakery in Columbus Ohio”. It is located in German Village and is called Pistacia Vera. The two people who own it were born in Bexley. Earlier in their lives they each spent time in other areas of the US. One if Arizona as an apprentice from the American Culinary Federation eventually getting to the pastry station portion of the training where he find something he really enjoyed. He returned to Columbus a few years later. His sister moved to Virginia and worked in the financial field for a time then returned to Columbus. They then made plans together to open a sweet shop, the idea changing to a pastry shop. He does the baking, she handles the financial end of the business. They opened their business in 2004 in the Short North. The bakery talents became a “niche dessert business” with new “creations” always different from others. Their selections change with the seasons. In 2007 the business moved to German Village where the Thurn’s Bakery and Deli had once been in a 102 year old two story structure. They had the inside of the building redesigned. The entire second story of the building was removed to create an “open two story space with a mezzanine”. The outside of the building was preserved and repainted. The article shared that the couple’s “dessert shop” has become the “most recognizable destination bakery in the entire city.” 

Dinner tonight will be spaghetti. 

Joy 

                              evicted? or bulk  pick up

 April 27, 2023 a thought for today, It is useful to first see the spark before the fire. Japanese Proverb

Yesterday’s first upload was “bowl”. I find so many interesting and some honored things as I am walking through my church. When I was there for food pantry (before we opened the doors for the clients) I roamed around looking for an image to fit the “assignment” for the day. I found several and chose this one due to the lines and shape in and around the bowl as well as color tones. 

The roofers are still working on the church. They were already started this morning when I got there. I managed to shoot a couple of pictures for the newsletter of a couple of them on the driveway side of the building. When I got into the office and opened the window curtain, there was one of the workers moving things in the dumpster right next to the window so I was able to get a photo taken through the window.  

I had some troubles with the copier right off the bat. I tried everything I could think of but none of that worked. I called Patti. She said she was on her way in. When she got there, she did a couple of checks. She finally moved the direction of the paper in the feed drawer and that worked. 

Paul had come in before Patti. After I talked to her, I unlocked a few of the rooms in the lower level so that he could get started on some things. 

The second upload for yesterday was also taken at church. A friend was eating an apple. I asked her if she would mind if I used it as my prop. The “assignment” was “a is for....”.

Driving around looking for photo opportunities wouldn’t work for me today so I came on home to get started on things here. 

I got started on some things on the computer. A little later I got started on the laundry. Larry came to fix the faucet to the washer last night. A couple of days ago when Lowell was here he did some more work steadying the washer. I think it is more secure today so the spin cycle should be ok. 

I need to make some of Sweet Pea’s meat ball treats today too. 

For today’s fist upload I chose Sweet Pea as my model again. The title for the image is “four-legged”. She needed her angry bear toy as a comfort. She doesn’t seem particularly fond of having her picture taken. 

The word today is impossible. Few things are impossible in themselves: application to make them succeed fails us more often than the means, François de La Rochefoucauld.  To wonder at nothing when it happens, to consider nothing impossible before it has come to pass, Cicero.   I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible, Saint Teresa of Avila.  Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible, François de La Rochefoucauld.  To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so, Sir Walter Scott.  Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish, Jean de la Fontaine. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible. Thomas a Kempis.  To be poor and independent is very nearly an impossibility. William Cobbett. The perfectability of humanity is indefinite, Marquis De Condorcet.  The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion, Socrates. Could we but rightly comprehend the mind of man, nothing would be impossible to us upon the earth, Paracelsus.  The mind, in discovering truths, acts in the same manner as it acts through the eye in discovering objects; when once any object has been seen, it is impossible to put the mind back to the same condition it was in before it saw it, Thomas Paine.  Let us measure ourselves by our Master, and not by our fellow-servants: then pride will be impossible, Charles Spurgeon. 

The next shot for today is titled “peaches”. I baked a biscuit and poured a can of peaches over it, topped with a dollop of whipped cream. 

Is there going to be a big change to our huge annual event that has gone on for years? The article I read today says that someone or some group is thinking of moving the Ohio State Fair. There is a plan to “conduct a study to determine whether to relocate the Ohio Expo Center & State Fair while redeveloping the existing site of the fairgrounds and the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy”. In the discussion and plan things to be considered are the value of the “existing site” and if and how it could “help fund” a different site. Another consideration is the benefits of redeveloping the existing site for other uses. Experts of a thing called the Master Plan “found that the State Fair should continue to be located in Columbus” as its home as been since 1886. They further stated that “ moving the fairgrounds “would be incredibly difficult.” Another point toward not moving the fair grounds is considering  “money (spent) over the years improving the fairgrounds”. The present fair grounds are also used for several different venues through the year.

When I have a schedule like today I prefer to make an easy supper so I think it will be hamburger and fries tonight. 

Joy

                                                needing TLC

 April 25, 2023 a thought for today, One written word is worth a thousand pieces of gold. Japanese Proverb

A photo upload for yesterday was “peaceful”. This is an area of trees lining a little used short road. The trees are like a canopy of comfort....something like a tablecloth/bed sheet tent we built over a piece of furniture as a kid. 

I have every thing ready to go for the printing session Thursday. I got the rest of the information to finish the bulletin that I had ready for it from yesterday. I got the envelopes for shut ins printed and the birthday cards and envelopes for this weeks birthdays. 

As I mentioned, I finished the bulletin to the last minute point yesterday and the worked in the kitchen with dishes, sink and frig. When I took a break Sweet Pea and I went out to look for today’s photos. I ‘played’ with the panorama setting on the camera. That was fun.  

Now it’s time to get ready to leave for the food pantry. Lowell picked Bob up for a medical appointment and Sue went out on errands. So it’s quite around here. Sweet Pea isn’t going to like it when I leave....

A second upload for yesterday was “panorama”. I “played” with the camera to get this one because I don’t use the feature on the camera often. I did several pans with the camera held in a vertical position and a few with it in horizontal position. 

We started out so slowly at food pantry today that we thought we were going to have one the lowest days we have had in a long time. But before we closed our doors we had twenty-five clients today. Three of them came at just about closing time. We always like the busy days, it means we have fed more people and it keeps us busy. 

Now it’s back to work here. Not much on the agenda left for today but I have to get the two photo uploads organized. 

My first upload for today is “found”. I “found” this balloon while looking for a different photo title, “numbers”,  a few days ago. Someone lost a balloon to the bare branches of this tree.

The word for today is ignorance. ....there is no darkness but ignorance...William Shakespeare.  There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.   Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science, Charles Darwin.  Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil, Plato.  Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn, Benjamin Franklin. Teach the ignorant as much as you can, Victor Hugo.  He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on, Benjamin Franklin. Ignorance is the cause of fear, Lucius Annaeus Seneca.  Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved, Thucydides.   There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action, Johann von Goethe.  Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon or star, Confucius.  Against stupidity; God Himself is helpless, Yiddish Proverbs.  Beware the man of a single book, St. Thomas Aquinas. 

The next upload for today is called “ a beautiful sight”. It came from this years Christmas archives. 

I’m a little behind on sharing this article. It was written just before Earth Day. It concerns Columbus meeting climate change. According to this article and to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “Ohio’s climate is changing and is getting warmer”. A couple of more signs of this happening are that floods are more frequent and ice on the Great Lakes is forming later and/or melting sooner. The “hot days” are becoming harmful to public health and affects agriculture. To help with this increasing problem scientists suggest young people “gain jobs in the solar industry”. There are “ action plans” in place to reduce carbon emissions by 2030. It would mean “no net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, achieving that goal through such measures as planting trees to offset emissions” and adding more “green space”. The article mentioned that increased temperatures in Ohio would reach a point of by the end of this century where  summer weather here would be like that of the present summers in Arkansas and like winter weather in North Carolina. An interesting point in the article is we are experiencing a “decline in sugar maple trees....that tolerate extreme cold and extreme heat....but can’t tolerate the quick freeze/thaw”. Another interesting point is: “Imagine spending 10 percent of your income in one month on energy and gas.” One promising suggestion in the article is that there has been a “shift (in) a lot of things farmers are doing already in water management and land management..... and a decline in corn production, but an increase in wheat” (ie. wheat taking removing more carbon dioxide from the air). The article says that the Ohio EPA is “developing a statewide climate plan.” We are apparently making a great effort to become “carbon neutral”. 

I’m taking the easy way again for dinner. Beer-battered fish and fries for dinner. 

Joy

                                 sharp turn gone bad

 April 23, 2023 a thought for today, Plenty of words when the cause is lost. Italian Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “something pretty”. I think the blue sky and puffy white clouds are always pretty. 

It looks like it is going to be a dullish weather day. The sun comes out bright, then a few moments later, dims. And the temperature is less than exciting for an early spring day. 

I don’t have much on the agenda. I am starting the letter before I leave for church which is a bit unusual. Usually I have to be at church earlier than I do today. I often have a bible study before the church service. But today we don’t. I do have to be there a little early for a short choir rehearsal. 

My second upload was “chocolate (anything)”. Here are some of the snacks I am staying away from for now while getting the diabetes back under control. 

When I get home there will be a little work in the kitchen then a day to refresh and restart and get ready for a new week......

I get a renewal when I go to church on Sunday, a “cleansing” of the tensions, small or large, of the week before and a boost for the week ahead. Today is one I really needed. There were meaningful words seeming to be  especially for me at this time in my life, in at least one of the hymns, there was a meaning in one of the particular sentences in the sermon, even a meaning in one of the prayer requests. I also always gather strength and positive outlooks from just being with my peers at each service. 

Today’s first upload is “open”. I happed to see this as we were waiting for the service to start. I couldn’t help want to use the open book for this image. 

The word for today is ideas.  Ideas can no more flow backward than can a river. Victor Hugo.  In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I will meet you there. Rumi.  I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God. Nicolaus Copernicus.  When I am traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Words are but the signs of ideas. Samuel Johnson.  Ideas govern the world, or throw it into chaos. Auguste Comte.  It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world. Aristotle.  Nothing is more common than for men to think that because they are familiar with words they understand the ideas they stand for. John Henry Newman.  Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong. Thomas Jefferson.  Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The second upload for today is “bubbles...tiny bubbles”. This one has been assigned before and I always have trouble finding bubble to take a photo of so that they are clear and readily visible. 

Here’s a story about one of the newer ways to capture energy for our use....and keep us moving into modernization.  I learned from this article that Bill Gates is an owner in a farm for this purpose in Ohio. It is about finding ways to use the land for centuries the old practice of farming combined with the new. The article is about farming ground also used for capturing energy....using the same plot of land together, a “partnership” of sorts. Here in Ohio not far from Columbus and near London is a place being prepared for a test called the Oak Run Solar Project. One of the biggest solar farms proposed in the US. The plan is to test and ultimately prove that farming can be done there among solar panels. It has been a long standing complaint the “utility-scale solar farms remove prime farmland from production”. Agrivoltaics is the term used to explain land used to “produce electricity and to farm at the same time”. The project is still in the planning form. The hopes are that construction could start before the end of the year” and be in practice as soon as the end of 2025. What is visioned is farming between rows of solar panels. There will be 2,000 acres with farming would also be suitable inside and outside a fence around the project. According to the article ‘agrivoltaics’ has been done on smaller scales around the world. The one near us would be the largest so far, a “super heavyweight class”. There are research considerations in the project like risks and costs. Part of the plan is a site to teach farmers how to farm around the solar panels with hopes of including the Ohio State University, the Tolles Career and Tech Center close to Plain City to establish a program for the training. With these teaching possibilities becoming a “regional hub for training”. Another of the concerns of some people are the affect on the “beauty” of the countryside, property values, drainage issues and truck traffic as well as liability and insurance”. According to the article many farms have doubts that this could work. 

It’s take out night ..... don’t know yet what we will be ordering....subway or taco bell....or ...

Joy

                           power

 April 21, 2023 a thought for today, Conscience is as good as a thousand witnesses. Italian Proverb

One of the photo uploads for yesterday was “alley”. I think of an alley as a place for trash cans and not-so-desirable-objects to be placed. I also read about an alley in a story that was an array of trees on either side of a pathway. They can be beautiful. I looked up the definition of the word before I shot several photos. Here are some definitions of an alley. “a narrow passageway between or behind buildings”. And “a path lined with trees, bushes, or stones.”

I met Dorothy at church this morning to finish the newsletter. We had our usual chat with each other. I always feel “brighter (happier)” after we have had our short monthly visits. Mostly, I think, because we have so much in common. Patti came in before we left and so did Paul. The roofers were there and working when I got there. 

When I got home, after a short photo search jaunt, I had to find some paper work for my son. That took a little while.

My next upload for yesterday was “three colours”. I was at church doing the printing and as I passed through the sanctuary I looked at the stained glass windows (as I always do...this time...) looking for a window or section of a window with three colors. This is the bottom portion of our “Isaiah” window. This part of the window is described as “The prophet has a vision of the Lord in the temple. He feels that he is lost for I am a man of unclean lips. A seraph flies to Isaiah and cleans his lips with a live coal pinched between a pair of tongs. Now the prophet is ready to proclaim the word of the Lord”

One of my “tasks” for the church is keeping up with our website. I’ll have to admit I don’t get to much done on it often. There’s really not much to update. However, one of them is making the monthly newsletter available in that venue. I tried that this morning. The company we use for the site has been doing some updates on the site. Some how our newsletter page is empty except for the header and footer. So I took some time to contact them. I couldn’t find the “contact us” feature on this updated site. I sent a message at the only place that looked like I could reach them. I guess I just wait and see what they will do about it. I asked them to please replace the content of that page. 

The rest of the day can be on the slow side....no “dead lines”. 

I had a third upload for yesterday. It’s title was “the color purple”. This one is from my archives. I don’t have any “flags” (that’s what my mom called them) or iris in the yard yet. Iris’ are said to symbolize power, with the three parts representing wisdom, faith and courage.

The word today is humanity.  I was surprised just now at seeing a cobweb around a knocker; for it was not on the door of heaven, Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare.  It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought! Each subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters used to hide themselves. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Man is not on the earth solely for his own happiness. He is there to realize great things for humanity, Vincent Van Gogh.  I am a human, and whatever concerns humanity is of interest to me, Terence.  Our humanity was a poor thing but for the divinity that stirs within us, Sir Francis Bacon.  Humanity is a duty made known and enjoined by revelation, and ever keeping pace with the progress of Christianity, Sydney Smith.  Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose, Proverbs.  The age of chivalry has gone; the age of humanity has come, Charles Sumner.  The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization, Ralph Waldo Emerson. On earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is nothing great but mind, Sir William Hamilton.  Each man is haunted until his humanity awakens, William Blake.  The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened and decorated by the intellect of man, Charles Sumner.  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.  What an ugly beast is the ape and how like us, Marcus Tullius Cicero.  Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:5, Bible.  What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. Joseph Addison.  Close by the Rights of Man, at the least set beside them, are the Rights of the Spirit, Victor Hugo.  

My first upload for today is called “leafy”. This is a view of the new leaves on the trees that line my street. 

There are several interesting “neighborhoods” in our city. One of them is called the Discovery District. This article is a little bit about this area of town. A large part of what makes up this district are: “Columbus State Community College, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus Museum of Art, and Columbus Metropolitan Library”. The article describes it as   a “cultural district because of its close proximity to higher educational campuses and art destinations”. In the words of the article it is not “typically viewed as the most prominent Columbus neighborhood, the density of academic and arts-based institutions in this area are what make this creative campus unique”. This district was “created” in 2007. Property owners agreed to pay a “special tax” to help maintain the area with cleanliness and safety in mind. These taxes pay for “safety ambassador” and a homeless outreach service. Part of these taxes pay to have “first-floor” graffiti removed and to promote PR. The article related that before this plan was implemented the area was considered an “unsafe area of the city”. There are historic landmarks in the area such as Kelton House, the First Congregational Church and the Broad Street United Methodist Church. To contribute to the safety issues mentioned earlier security guards from the “major institutions” join forces along with a specialty police force to keep the area clean and safe and on the alert for criminal activities. The boundaries of this Discovery District are roughly explained as  “bounded to the north by I-670, to the east by Jefferson Avenue and Lester Drive, to the south in a zig-zag pattern until it reaches I-70, and then to the west by South Grant Avenue”. Features that make this district “unique” are: one of “the highest-ranking large-city libraries in the nation......(also a) home to a wide array of American and European Art, as well as many contemporary and photographic collections (at the art gallery)......(and) educational institutions ( CCAD, CSCC, Franklin University, and Capital University”. The Topiary Park is part of the Discovery District occupying seven acres of land with 220 trees and a pond. There are multiple restaurants with a “variety of cuisines”. Many extra events take place in the area such as series’ of self guided tours and other seasonal events. 

The second upload for today is “anything yellow”. The most yellow we have in yards this season are the dandelions. I wanted a little more interest in this one so I search, while shooting and found this one trying to hide behind some blades of grass. 

Pizza night has rolled around again!!

Joy

                        maintenance supplies

 April 19, 2023 a thought for today, From those I trust God guard me, from those I mistrust I will guard myself. Italian Proverb

The fist upload for yesterday was “Holy Smoke!”. This was a holy smoke day. They cut my tree down and the equipment they had to do it was amazing. All kinds of fancy cutters and movers. Not to mention the expertise of the men who were doing it. They seemed to know all the tips and tricks to get the job done without any problems.

I was late getting to food pantry yesterday because they were here to cut down the Japanese Pagoda tree in the back yard. I will miss the best parts of the tree. It has been a beautiful shade tree covering most of the back yard. And, since it was right by my bedroom window, I liked laying in bed in the morning before I got up to watch the squirrels and birds playing in the tree. The problem was it had a very messy autumn cycle. It dropped seed pods that produced a fluid much like glue. Once the droppings were stepped on, by boots, shoes or paws, it came into the house leaving a path of sticky black goo that had to be scraped up. I can always visit the Ohio State Fair ground to stand and stare at the only other Japanese Pagoda that I know of in the area. 

The meeting last night was short. Everything was tended to “straight up” and there was little extra chatter. One thing that was a bit unusual is most of the lighting in the parlor was not working. Instead of working at the conference table we sat on the easy chairs in an area of the room where there was more and better lighting.

The second upload for yesterday was called “mix”. I picked this one because of the dandelions and violets as well ad the green grass.

I have everything ready for the printing and the birthday cards ready to mail. Except for one little hitch. One of the pages won’t be finished so I have to find a replacement for one section. 

I had most of that done before I had to get ready for the food pantry today. Yesterday we had twenty-five clients today we had twenty-three. It has really picked up since the money situation changed at the first of the year. 

I have several things to get done before and after dinner to get ready for another meeting tonight. 

My first upload for today was titled “a card”. I don’t keep card much any more but I did keep this one from Christmas time. 

The word today is honor.  Act well your part; there all honor lies, Alexander Pope.  Honor is the reward of virtue, Marcus Tullius Cicero.  Mine honor is my life; both grow in one; take honor from me and my life is done, William Shakespeare. Ease and honor are seldom bedfellows, Proverbs.  Let honor be to us as strong an obligation as necessity is to others, Pliny The Elder  The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. Charles Dickens.  If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable. Thomas More.  The honor of a nation is its life. Alexander Hamilton. Our own heart, and not other men's opinions form our true honor. Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Those who give hoping to be rewarded with honor are not giving, they are bargaining. Philo.  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. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.  Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the consequences, Sophocles. Pleasures are transient, honors are immortal, Periander.  If honor be your clothing, the suit will last a lifetime; but if clothing be your honor, it will soon be worn threadbare, William Arnot.  I have a lantern. You steal my lantern. What, then, is your honor worth no more to you than the price of my lantern! Epictetus.  

The second upload was titled “knife, fork or spoon”. I miss read it and believed it said knife, fork and spoon. So I included all three.

It’s interesting to read how formal education began here in Columbus beginning in 1806. This is the opening of the article: “The Land Ordinance of 1785 stipulated: “there shall be reserved the Lot No. 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within said township,” and “schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” The funding and construction were not included in this statement. The article went on....ten years before Columbus was a city, Congress “agreed” that the US would “give one thirty-sixth of a land area and three percent of the .....sale of public lands in Ohio to school support”. However the plan didn’t happen, any money gained for public schools was lost. Future and further attempts were “ignored”. Parents and civic leaders kept trying new ideas. Things seemed to begin to happen in 1806 when Lucas Sullivant built a school north of Broad Street at “Washington Street (later became Sandusky Street)”. The building was a log “structure 15 feet square with a large chimney”. Part of the story about the log “cabin” was that hogs lived under the flooring and brought fleas with them; one of the first teachers “ruled with an iron hand”. Teachers were paid $1.62 ½ per student and were provided room and board. One of the students in the first school was Joseph Sullivant, son of Lucas. In 1814 a log cabin school opened on the east “side of the Scioto River in a Presbyterian church. It was run on “voluntary donation”.  It closed. Between 1814 and 1816 more schools opened but also failed. In 1820 Lucas Sullivant and twenty others started a “school company”. Another school was built at Third and State Streets, called the Columbus Academy. Most kids did not attend. Schools were not looked upon favorably. Parents were illiterate and didn’t consider education important, schools were a “luxury”. In 1829 a school opened under the instruction of a minister. There were three classes. The Seminary agreed to “appropriate studies suitable to the female character”. The minister was named Hoge, and his wife Jane. They were criticized by some for neglecting Sunday School for the public education. Problems with public education continued for several years. In 1871 when Franklinton became part of Columbus there were rented rooms, log structures and parts of other buildings used as “temporary schools”.  In 1905 the oldest remaining school house was located at Rich and Third Streets, built in 1845. This is a very short story about how education continued upwardly after its rocky beginnings. 

I think we are having chicken fries and French fries for dinner. ....not the best nutrition but tastes good. 

Joy

 April 17, 2023 a thought for today, Who would be young in age, must in youth be sage. German Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “composite of at least five images”. I had the one image that had created with three different images of hibiscus in the archives. I pulled another image I had of a mixed arrangement of two more kinds of flower and put them together to get this composite.  

I got more work on the newsletter and downloaded some photos from my email that will go in the newsletter after I run them through the “darkroom (Photoshop) for final adjustment in size and focus. I haven’t started the bulletin yet but the pastor giving the sermon this week supplies all material needed. It takes as much time or more to edit due to the formatting but also offers a cut and paste feature. 

After I take a break, I need to work on a couple of household chores. Then back to the computer. ....While I was on “break” I got the kitchen sink cleaned and some other things put away. 

The next upload for yesterday was “what inspires me”. This one was taken in my church. The altar, the US flag and the sanctuary itself  inspire me. 

Now it’s back to computer work and photos....my life’s story. 

I may have time to get started on the bulletin also this afternoon barring any other things coming up. 

It is not such a nice spring day today, it feels more like early autumn. It has rained a little and the temperature has dropped considerably. It will get better and I hope it will stick around for awhile. I can’t believe how much wind we have been having in the last couple of weeks. 

My first image upload for today is “starts with B”. I think this ball was most likely blown into my yard from some young peoples games. 

The word for today is heart.  Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know... William Shakespeare. Our hearts are lamps for ever burning... Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  As there are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen to write, so the heart is a secret even to him (or her) who has it in his own breast. William Makepeace Thackeray.  I took you to my heart to keep it warm... Robert Browning. Always I have a chair for you in the smallest parlor in the world, to wit, my heart. Emily Dickinson.  Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. Marcus Aurelius. Wherever you go, go with all your heart. Confucius.  The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart. St. Jerome.  True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart. Honore de Balzac.  A loving heart is the truest wisdom. Charles Dickens.  Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom. Rumi.  The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. Robert Green Ingersoll.  The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. Henry Ward Beecher.  If it were not for hopes, the heart would break. Thomas Fuller.  While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. Francis of Assisi.  

The second upload for today is “curves and lines”. This shapes on this house, in my neighborhood, always captures my eye. There are lines, patterns, shapes and touches of color everywhere. 

A story about the Peanut Shop was on Columbus Neighborhoods last Thursday. I thought I would share it here. When I worked downtown (for fifteen years) my friends and I would some times take our lunch hour to walk further into “downtown”. We would often passed the Peanut Shoppe and stop for a bag of still warm peanuts. The shop was located at 5 S. High Street from 1936 to 1978 then moved to 46 N. High Street. In 2014 it was moved to its current location, 21 E State Street. The current owners bought the shop in 1996 but they had experience part of their life there before that. The husband of the two found a job at the Peanut Shoppe when he graduated from high school. He dressed as Mr. Peanut and was the living and walking as an advertisement for the shop. Later he became the manager before he and his wife purchased the business. They have kept the costume all this time. According to the article they are the longest running retail business in the downtown area, when Lazarus left the area that put them at the top of the list. You have to consider the difference in canned peanuts that may have been “cooked” six to eight months before you buy them. Here at the shop they were cooked no more than two days ago. They have continued to add items to their offerings like gummy bears and dark chocolates. People also enjoy cashews nearly as much as the peanuts. There are Spanish peanuts too and extra large red skins. One of the popular items is the mixed nuts.  They offer a “tree mix”. These nuts are grown on trees and there are no peanuts in that mix of those nuts grown on trees. Popular at the store are “chocolate covered peanuts and pecan turtles as well as Sno Cap and Swedish Fish candies”. “We customize everything we do,” she added. “I have a meeting with a gentleman who wants to get some two-pound tins for the holidays, but he’s not sure what. I said, ‘It’s always better to do it face to face. We custom make every gift.” 

I think I am going to make chili for dinner tonight. 

Joy 

                                                    A pile of gravel in a closed fast food stop

 April 15, 2023 a thought for today, Work is our business; it's success is God's. German Proverb

One of the uploads for yesterday was “this season”. It seemed only natural to show bright blooming flowers as a representative of this season. 

What a gorgeous day we are having including one of the major sounds of spring and summer....lawn mowers. There is a lawn mower engine running in the neighborhood, but it isn’t going anywhere???? I can’t figure what the reason for that might be???? I understand that at the end of a season gasoline may be run out of a mower or snow blower for storage but at the beginning of a season? I wouldn’t mind having the cash value that that is burning up. 

We, Bob, me, and Sweet Pea, picked up the weekly curbside grocery order. Most of it has been put away but I need to make room in the freezer for the rest of it. 

The next upload for yesterday was “frozen”. There’s not much frozen around here right now. So I opened the ice maker drawer in the freezer and stuck a straw in it for a bit of color. 

I am having a bit of a problem with my new washer. It is so powerful that it “walks” from its location when it is in the last spin cycles. My basement floor is uneven and slants towards a drain. The washer’s front two “legs” or corners are just a tiny bit into the slant. I hope to have it fixed before my next laundry day or it may be another trip to the laundromat, ugh. 

I’m taking a break to put the rest of the groceries away, and find three photos of the day to share with you...... 

...... I’m back....to finish this missive.... 

One upload for today is “something white”. I like the pattern on the white plastic privacy fence in my neighbor’s yard but decided to use the side of the white garage with a shadow showing. 

The word today is happy.  ...the only possible good in the universe is happiness. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to try and make somebody else so, Robert G. Ingersoll.  ...Thus pleasure is spread through the earth In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find...William Wordsworth.  Happiness is a form of courage. American proverb. Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination. Immanuel Kant.  One joy scatters a hundred griefs. Chinese proverb.  Joy is more divine than sorrow; for joy is bread, and sorrow is medicine. Henry Ward Beecher.  Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, Aristotle.  Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it, as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her own nose all the time, Josh Billings.  It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness, Thomas Jefferson.  The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. Henry Ward Beecher.  He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. Plato. As health produces health, so does philosophical wisdom produce happiness. Wisdom is a part of virtue that once possessed makes a man happy, Aristotle. Happy the man who has been able to learn the causes of things. Virgil

A second upload for today was “broken”. This image show several broken pieces. A very old piece of wood and some chipped cement along with a chipped brick. 

This article is about a photographer who enjoyed his work of a life time and was well respected in his community. The story was written several years ago so time has passed and his work has become a memory. What a wonderful memory the work of photography leaves to be enjoyed...like no other. It was in Mt. Vernon Ohio. He “liked fast cars and digital technology”. As part of his passion for photography getting up in the middle of the night to shoot photos of a fire didn’t bother him. He worked as the only full time photographer for the Mount Vernon News “since the Eisenhower administration”. The article shared that he was “shooting pictures for so long that he sometimes photographed the grandchildren of people he photographed as high-school students”. When the article was written his age was slowing him down leading to giving up sporting events and auto races. He was quoted as saying he couldn’t stand or walk as long as he use to, a subject I can attest to. He began his photography in high school. While he was in the Army he took photos for the military police. When he started his photography at the newspaper in 1955 he used a “a boxy Speed Graphic camera, once a staple of photojournalism.....photographed John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush when their presidential campaigns brought them to Ohio”. He said his biggest photo job was of the 1959 flood. There was no drinking water for days. A friend of him got a 5-gallon bucket of water for him to wash the negative in. At the interview he mentioned all the years he spent in the dark room and now he enjoyed the digital age.

This is one of the days I had a third upload. This one is titled “sugar or salt”. I couldn’t think of something photogenic about plain sugar or salt so I use the “salt free” bottle of ice melt. I’m not pleased with the total layout. I wanted to vignette it but it didn’t come out to my liking. 

I think it’s going to be another air fry dinner tonight or something from the freezer....there is some goulash in there?. 

Joy

                                                                  and yet more orange

 April 13, 2023 a thought for today, Those that will not hear must be made to feel. German Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “a number”. I don’t see to many fancy number although there are all kinds of such subjects. I picked this one due to the added textures and color tones. 

It’s printing day and it’s done. Patti was there again today but there were no deliveries so it was just the two of us for a little while and then Paul got there. I use to like to walk through the sanctuary when the lights have not been turned on yet. It felt good to be just me and Him. But for the last two or three weeks Paul has been working in there when I go through to drop off the bulletins. So it’s not the same. 

Most of the rest of the day will be multitasking with the laundry at the head of the list.

Another upload for yesterday was “selective color”. I picked one of the almost standard orange colors we see so much on our landscapes. 

On the way home, as is custom now, I was on the lookout for photo material. As it turns out, I think both photos today will be from right here at home. 

We are having another sunny day. It feels like spring has made the first few leads into the city. But we’re not quite there. It will be nice up too about Monday then the temperature will drop into the fifties again preceded by heavy thunder storms on Sunday. It’s a subtle hint not to move the house plants out just yet. 

The first upload I did for today was called “a pattern”. I was thinking of using one of the many patterns of light and shadows or patterns in the clouds but for this one and for todays upload I picked this pattern on my sister’s easy chair. 

The word today is ground.  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.  I had many friends to help me to fall; but as to rising again, I was so much left to myself, that I wonder now I was not always on the ground. I praise God for His mercy; for it was He only Who stretched out His hand to me. May He be blessed for ever! Amen. Saint Teresa of Avila.  There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret, Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green. Thomas Carlyle.  Nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right. John Milton.  Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day. Sophocles.  True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long. Marcus Tullius Cicero.  The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit. Aristotle. 

My second upload for today was “eye (s)”. Sweet Pea was handy for this shot. I have another in my
archives of a horses face that I caught a while back when I visited the stable but decided to use this more current one. 

Here’s a bit of something a touch unusual, finding pieces of ancient history when preparing to build something new. According to the article I came across there is a new bridge project over Raccoon Creek on Cherry Valley Road that is on a 2,000 year old site. When work began on the bridge the work came to an “abrupt” closure on in October. A crew of archaeologists uncovered a “wealth” of 2,000 year old  Native American artifacts. Among the findings were pottery, oven fragments and stone tools as well as flint minded east of Newark. The semi-transparent flint tools are being called “absolutely beautiful” by one of the observers. One of the crew has “determined” that a Hopewell family probably lived on the site in what may have been the front yard of the home at what is now Reddington Road and Thornwood Drive. The construction site is to include the building of a new roadway, a new bridge and a roundabout.  A 190-year-old bridge at the site was closed on October 5. In preparing for the new construction an archaeological survey was required by the National Historic Preservation Act and was performed. “Starting in early 2018, a team of archaeologists were hired to do the survey”. The survey determined that there were “historic and/or cultural structures that otherwise would be affected by regulations guiding projects involving federal funding. In this case, it did”. The old bridge was built in 1833. Traffic has become much heavier and caused a lot of ware and tear. There was talk of closing the bridge ten year ago when archaeologists found artifacts but there was no further investigation at the time. Later it became a “multi-step operation”.  As the “dig” continued , an instrument called a magnetic gradiometer was used. It measured the “fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field, which indicate the presence of subsurface structures, such as mineral deposits or archaeological sites (deposits)”. The Ohio Department of Transportation and the Licking County historical societies as well as Native American groups became involved. Soil samples were scientifically examined to discover past human activity. As the excavations went on “23 unique features were identified and interpreted as cultural remnants of the native inhabitants”. 

I can’t make up my mind yet whether is will be roast beef in the air fryer or seasoned salmon in the air fryer for dinner. 

Joy

                                Just because

 April 11, 2023 a thought for the day, When friendship goes with love it must play the second fiddle. German Proverb

My first upload for April 10 was “entrance”. That’s my sister at the front “entrance” coming home from running an errand. 

I got a couple of additions to the bulletin in a phone call last night so I made those changes the first thing this morning. Now there is only one more part to finish it. 

I got up early and got ready to go to an early standing doctor’s appointment yesterday only to realize I was a month early. So instead of wasting the time out and about I went looking for a few photos. Then I came home and got busy with work on the bulletin then some work in the kitchen. 

The second upload for yesterday was “industrial”. I went out on a photo search and found all kinds of “industrial” shots. As a whole image I liked this one best for this particular upload.

We are slowly beginning to experience the warmer weather they have been predicting. Today the sun is bright and unobstructed by heavy clouds. No jackets will be necessary. It looks like it will soon be time to get the house plants outside for their “vacation”. I am hoping we won’t have any more strong winds after I have them outside. 

As far as activities at church, this is a quiet week. I have an appointment to get my hair cut today and I need to take Sweet Pea to get her nails cut sometime this week. Along with that I may be able to get an early start on the upcoming newsletter. 

This is another one of those days that I had” a third photo of the day upload. This one is titled “bridges/piers”. This is the closest I could come without going back to the archives.

The word today is great.  All rising to a great place is by a winding stair, Francis Bacon.  Great people are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Do not despise the bottom rungs in the ascent to greatness, Publilius Syrus. Great men are more distinguished by range and extent than by originality, Ralph Waldo Emerson. A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men, Thomas Carlyle. Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Great truths are portions of the soul of man; Great souls are portions of eternity, James Russell Lowell.  To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Ralph Waldo Emerson. The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be. Socrates. Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? Henry David Thoreau.  The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart. Mencius.  Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. Saint Augustine.

My fist upload for today is “delicate”. I use to “tat”, a method of crochet-like action that created a near lace-like finished piece of cloth. I don’t have one of my tatted pieces left so I decided to look at the “delicate” petals of a flower. This one is near the end of its day but still one of the “delicate” gifts of God. 

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about the Central Market here in Columbus before. Here’s a story about its history. It was a public market from 1814 to 1966. It was located, as I understand it, along with the first City Hall from 1850 to 1872, on High Street, south of Rich Street. From it’s beginning it has moved three times. The third time was at Fourth Street between Town and Rich where the Greyhound bus station is now located. The first building was a small wood building, 50ft long. The next one was also a two-story building. The third was built of brick and limestone with a “central bell tower”. In this building the first floor was for the market and the second floor was city hall. Fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry and flowers were on hand in first floor stalls. Farmers brought their products in a 3 or 4 am where an opening bell would ring at 6:00. On the second floor, in the city hall, there was “a council chamber and courtroom, with two neighboring jail cells and a guard room. Individual rooms held the offices of the mayor, city marshal, clerk, surveyor, and the market master, the marketplace supervisor”. Next to the building was a jail until the City Prison was built in 1879. All along the area here were sidewalks, sheds and horse-drawn stands used for farm stalls. The third market was purchased by the city. In 1872 a new City Hall was opened on Capitol Square. The market itself was remodeled in 1930. It “thrived into the 1950s”. A fact in the article was that it drew 20,000 people on Saturdays. In the 1960s the market was in need of repair and tenants were more scarce. They began moving to the more “less used” North Market. In 1966 the Central Market was demolished. Besides the North Market there was an East Market and a West Market but even less used. In 2022 a new East Market was opened. 

The second upload for today is “traffic sign/lights”. This is a back side of one of our newer models of overhead traffic lights. 

I am most likely going to use the air fryer for dinner tonight.....fish and fries, maybe. 

Joy  

            more left overs with nowhere to go