October 12, 2024 a thought for today, Live to be old, learn to be old. Chinese Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was another in my series “autumn foliage”. This one is from my archives. The leaves were much brighter and more abundant that year. 

The next upload for yesterday was “birds in flight”.  This kind of photo is hard for me to capture so I have the “catch as catch can”. This one is also from my archives.  It’s not as close up as I would like but I had to be quick with the camera. 

The last photo upload for yesterday was “a bridge”. I found several “bridge” images. I decided to be a little different and use this railroad bridge as my challenge for this one. 

Life today. Saturday.....what a wonderful day....

The main item on the to-do list for Saturday is grocery pick up. Many years ago there use to be a grocery delivery service here in Columbus called PeaPod. I used it when I was fully employed with the Federal Government. It meant so much to have the groceries delivered on a day I didn’t have to work. I could spend the day getting caught up on cleaning chores and still get my groceries. They went out of business here a long time ago. Now I enjoy the curbside pick up (since the pandemic). I also enjoy online shopping for almost everything else I need. And another thing in the line as far as things we can do without going away from the house is voting by mail, now available. It has been available for military services but now it’s available to most others. I personally miss the voting experience. Being with people I don’t see often and doing something we all have in common and patriotic. Then comes listening the same day whether our choice won or not. On the other side of the coin, I really do miss visiting the roaming in the stores although it was never as pleasurable for me as it seems to some. The problem for me was and is of a financial nature. I see things I want but don’t really need and can’t afford. As age is continually moving along getting around is more and more difficult. So the “modernization” in shopping and some homemaking categories is much easier and comfortable. 

My first upload for today is “faceless portrait”. I think I may use this challenge for a series next week. It was fun watching for good subjects as I waited for Sue to get finished in the store. 

I am feeling lazy today, as seems to be more common as the days go along, so I don’t think I can convince myself to do to much today. Two of my great grandchildren are in swimming competitions today. I was invited to go. The heart wants so much to be there but the body says hold on a minute... I didn’t go. I hope to make at least one of the meets before this season is over. There are some things that are not so bad about getting older but there are more things that aging brings with it that I miss.  

Since Bob has passed away over a year ago, I have been trying to reset my evening meals. It is difficult to cook for one person. I cooked for five for over sixteen years and then for three for the past twenty plus years. Now it is just me, Sue and I like different foods. We do a pizza or a DoorDash once a week, that helps. Anyway, I think I am just beginning to get set in a pattern where I can have “home cooked” meals at least a couple of evenings a week. I cook for three people one evening and split it up into three or four meals to freeze for more evenings. Lowell takes us out now and then too. It seems to be working for now. 

The next upload for today is “wildlife, your choice”. I used my archives again since I don’t see wildlife in my part of the city very often. 

The word today is more. There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship. Thomas Aquinas. There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. Washington Irving.  I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. Vincent Van Gogh. Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. Marcus Aurelius. To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. Martin Luther.  The less men think, the more they talk. Montesquieu.  There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more. Lord Byron. The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults. Alexis de Tocqueville. More law, less justice. Marcus Tullius Cicero.  It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees. George Eliot. While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. Francis of Assisi.

The last upload for today is “a calm morning”. Early in the morning I saw a neighbor walking his dog. I caught him going by out of the corner of my eye and didn’t have time to get the camera ready before he had passed. So I went outside looking for something that would give the feel of a “calm” morning. The tree branches with their shadows on the neighbor’s garage seemed to imply that feeling for me. 

Article: Some early history about our state. Maybe places to visit on short trips. The title is “Visiting Ohio Before It Was Ohio”. It opened by mentioning hunting for arrowheads in the backyard and visiting sites of Moundbuilders. All of that signs of “ancestors echoing through our backyards”. Some such areas in Ohio are known throughout the world, the Serpent Mount for one. There are programs that “currently work with federally recognized tribes to ensure the American Indian sites under their care are preserved and appropriately honored”. One of the author’s trips for to Chillicothe Ohio. She that here there is a “high concentration of American Indian historical and ceremonial sites and some absolutely gorgeous natural scenery.” One of the stops was the Top of Fort Hill. The hiking here was “intense” in upward motions. Along the way were birds, crickets and falling leaves. At the top looking down was a view of “rippling landscapes” that had been created in the landscape. Fort Hill was not an actual fort in “warfare sense”. It was for ceremonial purposes built by the Hopewell people 2000 years ago in layers of dirt, sand, clay and rocks. The Hopewell people built several different areas that have become parks. The article went on to touch on the subject of “did You Know Ohio Has Petroglyphs?” (Note: A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art.) So the author considered traveling to Kelley’s Island to “Check out Inscription Rock Petroglyphs”.  Then she realized she make a shorter trip to an area called “Leo petroglyphs, located at 400 Park Road in Ray, Ohio”. It is a nature preserve with a half mile nature trail “through a cave, honeycombed sandstone ledges, and a waterfall, but the true attraction is the collection of petroglyphs”. Here she found an “estimated 37 sandstone carvings”. She saw shapes of fish, footprints and “a four-armed tailed creature having a stern talk with a snake, maybe?” In the article she went on to say that there is no idea “what the petroglyphs mean or what story they tell”. It is “believed to be the work of the people of the Fort Ancient culture– approximately 1,000 years ago”. Toward the end of the article there is a list of other “lesser-known” sites in Ohio that “celebrate the early history of this land”. Indian Mill- Upper Sandusky, Johnston Farm & Indian Agency- Piqua, Miamisburg Mound- Miamisburg, Schoenbrunn Village in New Philadelphia Logan Elm- Circleville, Nobles Pond- Stark County, Alligator Mound- Granville, SunWatch Village- Dayton, Gnadenhutton- Tuscarawas County”

I’m going to make a meat loaf for dinner and put some in the freezer for later dinners. 

Joy

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