December 21, 2023 a thought for today, Friends tie their purse with a cobweb thread. English Proverb

An entry in the photo a day for yesterday was “Santa”. This was a gift from a friend several years ago. It still decorates for us on this holiday. This St. Nick has been with us for several years. 

 

My second upload for yesterday was “all around me”. I decided to us a panorama feature on my camera for this image. I felt it best fits the statement ..... all around me. 

Another upload for yesterday was “winter”. At this time of year we get more than one upload title of “winter”. This one is of Sweet Pea’s paw prints on the back porch. 

Yesterday was a day for a forth upload.  This one is “decorations”. It is another capture of the red bow on my entry door. There is another ornament of a set of bells on a red ribbon hanging on the door handle.

Life today. It was a full couple of hours of printing and folding this morning. Here is the list (I know you are waiting with bated breath for it)....anthem lyric insert half sheet, cut and inserted in a poinsettia dedication sheet after it was printed and folded. Both of those were inserted in the special Christmas Eve bulletin after it was printed and folded. After that, came the newsletter. There is a bit of a note about this one. When I got up at 6:30 this morning, I noticed a text message on my phone that I have an addition for the newsletter that I would be leaving to print in an hour and half. Anyway, I sent an order of seventy-five copies to the copier. As they came off the printer, I folded them once, then folded in the other direction then put them under a weight of books to help flatten them.

An upload for today is “presents”. I have given up on wrapping individually. I am using decorated bags for my gift now. It’s much easier and still festive. It also gives the receiver a way to carry the present home.

That meant time to take the bulletins to the appointed places and gather left over bulletins from last week.  Lastly was placing a copy of the new newsletter on the public bulletin board on the lower level.  Before and after the printing there was time and chance for a short chat with friends who came and went as printing/folding was in progress. 

Now some of the pressure is over. Soon it will be time to share time with family. The next several days will be short visits with friends and family as comes with this most sacred celebration time of the year. 

There was some discussions on the upkeep of our web page that I administer for the church this week.  I haven’t been keeping up with it for sometime. There are a couple of areas that need attention. So since I know about those spots now I will attend to them in the beginning of the new year. In that line of thought, there has been a change in the web site hosting that we use. That means new technology in some of page creation. I no longer keep up with IT growth so my work on the site will be limited to my now apparently dated knowledge of the processes. I think it will be enough to maintain the pages that are in the present design but expansion if wanted or necessary to serve its original purpose will be reduced. 

The next upload for today is “fences”. That can be a ho-hum subject so I wanted to make it interesting. I went to the upper level of the house to shoot downward. My neighbor has a very clean and neat looking fencing arrangement so I shot it as the main focus while in the process I got glimpses of other neighbors fences also. I can’t seem to shake the notion that fences that enclose an entire space reminds me of a giant play pen.

The word for today is risk. It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one. Voltaire.  The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision. Maimonides.   To win without risk is to triumph without glory. Pierre Corneille.  Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk. Lucius Annaeus Seneca.  It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything. Plutarch.  We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard. Voltaire.  Happy are those who dare courageously to defend what they love, Ovid.  Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear, Publilius Syrus.  Boldness, without the rules of propriety, becomes insubordination, Confucius.    Fortune sides with him who dares, Virgil.  The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise, Tacitus.  There is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, Napoléon Bonaparte.  Trust means you're ready to risk what you currently have, Rumi.  The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

The last upload for today is titled “I do this every year”. That is another thought-provoking subject to show in a photo image. I show some of the equipment I use, hole press, binding machine, binding comb and hole punch for the annual calendars that I make.  

This article, as I read the title seemed to be a thought of how one persons Christmas started and what it meant and maybe how it would relate to others. It started with.... “I dread(ed) my first Christmas without dad. How rough around the edges Uncle Jughead save(d) it.” At the time this memory was being formed the author was 14 his sister 9. Their father had died of a heart attack the month before Christmas. Before the family was up on Christmas morning there was a loud knock on the door. On that cold morning there was a man called Uncle Jug who had worked all night on the railroad. With a smile he asked for a cup of coffee. The figured that looked like he may have had a drink before coming to the house. The young boy saw him as a “big man with rough edges.” He was always dressed in bib overalls, chewed tobacco and drove a pickup truck that he used in a second job of hauling junk. In the Army he was “rowdy” and got a nickname of Jughead. While having the coffee he put on the act of saying he had to spend too much money on kids toys for Christmas and some other happy and funny talk. The author went on to say that ‘Uncle Jug thought of us this first Christmas after dad’s death’. He gave them happy talk and he knew what he was doing, “showing concern for us in his unceremonious way.”

I think I will heat up some frozen salmon patties for dinner. 

Joy 

                            a tree for the homeless and passer bys