May 25, 2023 a thought for today, The fool's excuse is bigger than the mistake he made. Persian Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “I sat here....”. This is my spot most of the day light hours except when multi tasking in household chores. 

I had a call this morning that I have ‘sorta’ been hoping for. The reason for the call is not the best motive (for either of us).....the contact with that part of the family has been a dream for a few years now. It may go no where but it’s a step. ‘Nuf said. 

A second upload is from the archives. As you can see, it is a pink peony peaking through the chain link fence. I liked that fence. I could see into my neighbors back yards for several houses down, and speak/bond with them now and then. Now there are privacy fences all the way, almost like giant private play pens. 

Bob is in the hospital for a couple of days for some further testing. So when I got the church printing done Sue took me to visit him and take him some things he wanted. I won’t drive in the OSU area. I would become totally lost in all the buildings, traffic signals and traffic itself and the walk from the parking lot to the building then to the room. We will keep in contact through text, thank goodness for that form of technology. I would like to have him home but he is getting what he needs. 

Now that we are home from our trip I am getting a start on the laundry. I will leave a sink of dishes for tomorrow. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. 

My first upload for today is “I can....”. This image was generated from Bob’s room at the James Hospital (19th floor). The window was facing toward my neighborhood. The two water towers from Westgate Park are in the upper right corner. My house is one of those in behind the trees near the water towers. 

The word for today is order. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves, Henry David Thoreau. Order marches with weighty and measured strides. Disorder is always in a hurry, Napoleon Bonaparte.  The less of routine, the more of life. Amos Bronson Alcott.  Good order is the foundation of all good things,  Edmund Burke.  Routine is a ground to stand on, a wall to retreat to; we cannot draw on our boots without bracing ourselves against it, Henry David Thoreau.  Nothing is orderly till man takes hold of it. Everything in creation lies around loose. Henry Ward Beecher.  Method will teach you to win time, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.  Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. John Adams. The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be. Lao Tzu.  Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. Voltaire.  We live in this world in order always to learn industriously and to enlighten each other by means of discussion and to strive vigorously to promote the progress of science and the fine arts. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  I quote others only in order the better to express myself. Michel de Montaigne.  Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. Epicurus.  Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Chief Seattle.  

I found this huge mushroom on a walk in one of the near by metro parks a couple of years ago. It shows some of the amazement of nature in its shape and patterns and what I call freckles. 

This story is about a part, a large part, of something from my memories..... the amusement park at Buckeye Lake. I may have mentioned it in an earlier blog. Maybe this adds a little more information and a different perspective.  It was a spot famous bands would visit, a tourist attraction with dance pavilions, a beach, picnic places and even a baseball park as well as amusement rides and games. It was a place I spent many of my teen weekends. My aunt and uncle’s cottage was a home for many of my cousins and myself most of the summer for several years. We would take one of their boats across the lake to dock at the lakes wall at the park and spend hours enjoying all we could. It began from the Ohio and Erie Canal that connected Cleveland to Portsmouth, Ohio . Dams and levees in 1826 turned a swampy pond “into the Licking Reservoir to supply the canal with water”. In 1894, the reservoir was named Buckeye Lake. Note: the canal was abandoned in 1913. Visitor ship increased to Buckeye Lake Park in 1904 when the Buckeye Lake and Newark “inter urban railroad” was completed from Downtown to the park. The park and area continued to grow. By 1911 hotels and restaurants had opened. The dance pavilions, boating , beaches and picnic areas and the ball park all sprung up. As put by the article “The 1920s began the golden years”.This is when the amusement ride and games began to appear. A Ferris wheel and “spinning and twirling ride” dotted the landscape of the park. 1931 brought the wooden roller coaster. A skating rink was added. Up to 50,000 a day came by with many stopping by the Crystal Pool. By the 1950s the park “began to lose its appeal as people found other diversions”. Maintenance slacked off and attractions were demolished. In 1966 the roller coaster was blown down in a storm. The only thing left is a fountain that had been a “centerpiece” in the park. There is a museum featuring some of the stories of the park in its heyday. 

Dinner tonight is “up-in-the-air”. I am really late on getting the laundry started. And it is just Sue and I so I think we will each just find something we want that sounds good. 

Joy

                             used and left behind