December 7, 2023 a thought for today, Whoever has bitten a sour apple will enjoy a sweet one all the more. German Proverb

One of the uploads for December 6 was “a wreath”. This is the one I entered a few days ago before it was all put together. Here it is all decorated and mounted on the front door. 

The second upload for yesterday was “outside”. This is wide open
subject. There are so many captures I could have entered and since I upload so many images I decided to use this one of a tiny bit of everyday life on the edge of a city community. 

The third and last image I uploaded yesterday was “a fountain”. There is a fountain at the metro park down the street from my house. They have shut the water off for the season so I found this in my archives. It was taken along the site of one of the rivers that passed through town. 

Life today. I had a pleasant surprise yesterday afternoon. Rebecca called and wanted to know if Sue and I would like to meet them at York for dinner. Heck yes. It was a pleasant dinner along with ambiance at York and family conversations.

The printing is done for the week. There was the bulletin, top of the list. I had printed and cut the insert of anthem lyrics as the bulletin came up on the screen. After the bulletin came the printing of song sheets for the special Christmas fellowship hour. Then, there was the distribution of the bulletins, return the memory card from the last Sunday’s service, the bulletins placed in their expected locations. I went down to place the bulletin that traditionally goes on the downstairs bulletin board....I couldn’t get to it to thumb tack it in place so as I noticed a quick opening I  rushed in and haphazardly stuck it in an empty spot. The food was being delivered for food pantry so there was a lot of activity at the bulletin board site. 

After I left the church, I made a stop at Kroger pharmacy. I had a call that I had medicine ready. There wasn’t any and I had really not ordered any either, just the call from Kroger that I had one to pick up. Someone made a mistake. So then I went on down to General Dollar to pick up a few tiny things I want to put in the kids Christmas bags. Last stop was McDonalds for pancakes and sausage. 

One of the uploads for today is “silver bells”. This is on of the door hanger that Sue found on one of her shopping trips to add to the holiday decorations in the hour for this season. 

When I got home, it was back to the computer. Then I took a break to start some laundry. 

I think a couple of letters ago I mentioned that I was e-reading a book that was over two thousand pages long. I figured I wouldn’t be able to finish it before my library loan time on it was up. It was up last night. I got a message that I could renew it for another 21 days. Yeah. Now I will be able to finish it. 

I recently had a couple of happenings that brought a thought to mind. ...... just a little woe-is-me question/statement I need to get off my chest: I wonder how you really know when you have “worn out your welcome”, in any venue of life, so that you can make a choice to fade away from that particular “venue” with dignity.

A second upload for today is “joy is...” As I looked around the neighborhood for a possible shot I caught the sunlight and shadow on a neighbors house and realized  that is a joy...sunlight (God’s light) and shadow. 

The word for today is learning. No one has ever completed their apprenticeship, Johann von Goethe. That one is learned who has reduced his learning to practice, Hitopadesa. You cannot open a book without learning something, Confucius. The mind of the scholar, if he would leave it large and liberal, should come in contact with other minds, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. God teaches the soul by pains and obstacles not by ideas, Jean Pierre de Caussade. Learning is not childs play we cannot learn without pain, Aristotle. The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Instruction does much, but encouragement everything, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own, Michel de Montaigne.  A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind, Sophocles.  The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world's work, and the power to appreciate life, Brigham Young.  Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age, Aristotle.  I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning, Plato. Ancora Imparo (Yet I am learning), Michelangelo.  

The last upload for today is “classic car(s)”. I am not privileged to have access to a collection or even one classic car. So I was wondering if possibly an upload of an image of a classic pontoon boat would suffice. This was taken of some of my cousins on our aunt’s private pontoon boat on Buckeye Lake. 

The article. There is a television show in Columbus that answers questions from people. It covers nearly any subject people ask about. The show is on Thursday evenings at 7:00. The first half hour is called Broad and High.  The second half hour is called Columbus Neighborhoods. In the second one there is a portion called Courious Cbus. That is where this article, and others I have used, comes from. Well, here’s something about animals....this one could be a real contravirtual one, it is: “Why Doesn't Columbus Have Pigeons? Why Columbus unlike “large cities like San Francisco, Chicago or New York, pigeons are a common sight.” If you don’t see the pigeons themselves you will see “evidence” that they are around. One interview for this article was with an ornithology professor at the Ohio State University. When the question about pigeons being scarce in Columbus was asked he was “puzzled.” He says he notices pigeons when he is out and about. He says he sees two “flocks” on campus. He went on to say that they are “feral birds and are descendants of domesticated pigeons that were once kept for their homing abilities. He went on to say that is why they are “commonly found in areas populated by humans”....they are comfortable in their presence. The pigeons we are familiar with are called “rock pigeons.” Their natural habitat is rocky cliffs. In cities bridges and buildings provide the most “cliff-like” structures. Because they have adapted to city structures and are not picky about food they find and eat they have “spread across the country. They have made homes in nearly every place where a human population resides” more in larger groups in chosen cities than in others. “Pigeons are not migratory and don’t tend to travel very far from where they are born.” So it could be that there are less pigeons in Columbus than some of the larger cities because in those cities “breeding might tend to have more birds.” Another reason is some of the larger cities have bigger buildings which allow for more nesting areas. Also mentioned in the article is that Columbus is more spread out than some of the other cities and they are more heavily populated witch cause the attraction to humans. After the interview for the article the author went out looking to see if he could find pigeons and where they could be found. After stopping at the OSU farm they headed downtown and found some on light posts and wires along 315. I learned at this point in the article that pigeons don’t like trees. After the trip down town they headed back to the Waterman Farm at OSU. They found 40 to 50 pigeons on Lane Ave. “Though pigeons don’t seem to be as common in Columbus as other cities, they are here if you know where to look.”

We had dinner at York Steak House. 

Joy

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