February 21, 2024 a thought for today, The tyrant is only the slave turned inside out. Egyptian Proverb

The first photo a day upload for yesterday way “starts with the letter Q” . I chose a card from one of our playing decks for this prop. I used a couple of filters to enhance the red color and change the rest to black and white. 

The second photo a day upload for the 21st is “poetry”. I think it was supposed to be portrait but I already had “poetry” set up and completed. 

The next upload yesterday was “neon”. I was a day late shooting and uploading this one. I couldn’t remember where I had seen a neon sign lately. I drove around on today looking for it. 

Yesterday was one of the four days a month that I have an upload with this group. The upload is called “frozen”. I took this shot of one of the last piles of snow trying to show the edge that looked grainy and crusty like ice. 

Life today. Things are beginning to look a little less stressful now, like I have passed through an obstacle of some sort. I hope I am not anticipating the relief to soon. The bulletin is done. The newsletter is done, ready for print. The annual report is.....well....done as far as I can go without outside input which is out of my control. “My” part is done. I have in the past and would like to for this issue, put photos in to add interest. But since the deadline time was moved that, as far as I am concerned, is not possible for this edition. I won’t have the time to find photos to fit the subjects and to do the sizing, formatting and placing. Who knows....maybe people will prefer that a totally print document anyway, without further interest. I sill have the ‘special’ bulletin to do for the memorial we are having for a dear friend in a couple of weeks. 

As I was getting things done yesterday, I needed to print the anthem lyrics sheet as well as a few other items. The printer wouldn’t print double sided as it should. So after some attention to that problem I found that I was out of ink, both color and black....no wonder it wouldn’t work. I didn’t have a back up supply as I usually do so I was in a mild panic since this needed to be done today or tomorrow. On my way to a food pantry, I made a stop at a local pharmacy, so that I didn’t have to go to a more distant office supply store to get some ink.....they had what I needed! Problem solved. So this morning I could pick up where I left off yesterday.

The first upload for today is “starts with the letter W”. I had a fresh bottle of cooking wine in the cupboard so that would be my prop. 

Lowell came by yesterday afternoon. It’s time now in the legality of things to sell Bob’s car. We, he and I together, had to make a decision on how we wanted to proceed with the advertising, the price and the sale. 

I read some pretty deep books in my last couple of choices especially with the one “All the Light We Cannot See”. So I decided to switch for a while and read something more historical fiction on a lighter side. The one I am reading is much easier to read. I still enjoy my other favorite authors for their ability to use words so effectively and with such precision so I will return to them. But this is a bit of a respite in my daily reading.

Now it’s time to leave for food pantry. 

The second upload today is “danger”. They are doing some major construction on this corner. It looked  to me like it would be “danger(ous)” to venture into all of the space of the orange cones, heavy equipment and spraying water. 

The word today is ancient.   The same thing which is now called Christian religion existed among the ancients. They have begun to call 'Christian' the true religion which existed before. Saint Augustine.  It is better to imitate ancient than modern work. Leonardo da Vinci.   If any man cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of any feeling at all. Horace.  The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits. Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns. William Penn.  Society therefore is as ancient as the world. Voltaire.  The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.  Voltaire.  If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition. Charles Caleb Colton.  Primitive times are lyrical, ancient times epical, modern times dramatic. The ode sings of eternity, the epic imparts solemnity to history, the drama depicts life. The characteristic of the first poetry is ingeniousness, of the second, simplicity, of the third, truth. Victor Hugo.  Ask counsel of both times of the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest. Francis Bacon.  All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue. John Adams. [Our] plan is to follow the example of the prophets and the ancient fathers of the church, and to compose psalms...so that the Word of God may be among the people also in the form of music. Martin Luther.  On every hand we observe a truly wise practice, in education, in morals, and in the arts of life, the embodied wisdom of many an ancient philosopher. Henry David Thoreau.

The last upload for today is “lucky”. It said that pennies in the heads up position are supposed to be lucky. And the number three is a strong feeling for many.

This article is about free time. Everybody would like more free time maybe this article will help with that. The article was written by a professor of modern history. The article began talking about how there has been “massive gains in productivity” in recent years. It is determined that outputs have increased by 300% from 1950 to 2017 in the US. Work hours were compared with 1,767 work hours in the US compared to 1,354 in Germany. Some economists say people want to make more money, “so they prioritize work over free time”. In 1930 it was predicted that a normal workweek would decrease to 15 hours. But “Americans in their prime working age are still on the job 41.7 hours per week”.There is another side to consider. They don’t really have much of a choice. Most everyone works 40 hours a week because they have to to keep their jobs and pay their bills. The article mentioned that many people “forego” their “earned vacation time” for fear of losing promotions. The 40-hour work week was established in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The article went on to say that this act was to “help the nation emerge from the Great Depression.” So where there are two people in a house hold working it amounts to an 80-hour work week. Having and raising children have to be considered. So there is a thought of “reducing the standard workweek, perhaps by transitioning to a four-day week, could ease stress for overworked families”. The article states that “changes require political action, not just individuals making the personal choice”. That seems to be a problem when, according to the article things are, “measured mostly by economic growth, .......quarterly economic growth data, with increases deemed “good” and decreases deemed “bad.” The idea in the article asks “why shouldn’t free time and its benefits be included in the equation?”

I am having some of my homemade tomato soup for dinner along with Hot Pocket Deliwich Cheese Melt on pretzel dough. 

Joy

                                   free ride