December 15, 2024 In time of test, family is best. Burmese Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “all that glitters”. This is my tree from last year. We have a smaller tree this year with fewer ornaments on it. 

The next upload for yesterday is “mood”. Rain puddles with reflections seem to give off a mood. 

The next upload is called “shopping”. I don’t do a lot of shopping, most of shopping is online these days. I do visit Kroger every week, mostly in the pick up area. This is a view of that shopping arena. 

This is one of those days I have a fourth photo a day upload for the day. This is
one at for the club is assigned as “my choice”. For this one it is one of the series of winter trees. 

Life today. It looks like I will be getting the Ford. It belongs to my cousin who needs something different so she needs to give up the car. I am still waiting for the insurance check. I think we will be getting it this week. Then I want a mechanic friend (distant cousin) to check it out for me, for any updates and checkups. I have to turn the rental back in on Friday. 

My first upload for today is “transparent”. The best way I could thing to show transparent was to put a “veil” over and original photo. I used on of my digital creations over a Christmas photo from last Christmas. 

Turn-out at church this morning was even less than seems to be normal now. Although we did have two new visitors. I am hoping they will come back. 

As is my custom I don’t have much on my agenda this being Sunday. I have been so busy working on the calendars and peppermint plants that I have let some of my daily-15 minute-early-spring cleaning chores on the back burner. That along with the problems with the car has left me with little time for anything else. Yesterday was an exception. I was able to get some shredding of very old documents done and some catch up on photo-to-sketches for a project that the kids and I are working one, and an upload of an old plug in filter I use often at Photoshop. It felt good to get my mind back on those things.

The next upload for today is another of “my choice” and my winter trees series. It looks like this winter sky is a little on the gray side. 

The word today is pursue.  I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death. Leonardo da Vinci.  Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence. Henry David Thoreau.  The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. Benjamin Franklin.  We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing. Louisa May Alcott.  Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination. Carl von Clausewitz.  Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. Thomas Jefferson.  If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains. Marcus Tullius Cicero.  Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination. Carl von Clausewitz.  The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues. Marcus Aurelius. Every soul pursues the good and does whatever it does for its sake. Plato.  Blind fortune pursues inconsiderate rashness. Jean de La Fontaine.  Either you pursue or push, O Sisyphus, the stone destined to keep rolling. Ovid.  

The last upload challenge is titled “festive”. I think I mentioned before that I don’t do much actual wrapping anymore, I use decorative bags. This image is from my archives of a time when I was still “wrapping”. 

Article: When I saw this article, I thought it would be interesing to see another view of this famous character. It’s a childhood character but seems to hold the warmth and interest of all areas of life. It’s about Charlie Brown. The title says that “‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ almost didn’t air − and why it endures”. It was written by an Associate Professor of Clinical Business Communication. The article went on to say that in 1965 Charlie Brown became “etched into traditions across generations like decorating the tree or sipping hot cocoa”. It sounds like there was a problem when it came time to air the show. The show executives felt the program was too slow and not “upbeat” enough. Some saw it as a “cartoon about a depressed kid seeking psychiatric advice”. “And yet, against all the odds, it became a classic”. It became a “multimedia empire – not because it was flashy or followed the rules, but because it was sincere”. The author sees it as “A Charlie Brown Christmas” as a fascinating historical moment”. The Peanuts cartoonist “wanted to tell a story that cut through the glitz of holiday commercialism and brought the focus back to something deeper”. There was some controversial points when the show would “use real children’s voices instead of adult actors, giving the characters an authentic, simple charm”. They didn’t want to add a laugh track that apparently was “standard” at the time in animated TV. They wanted “sincerity”. Then came the selection of music for the program. They went for a “sophisticated soundtrack.....unlike anything typically heard in animated programming, blending provocative depth with the innocence of childhood”. Another sticking point when putting the show together was “insistence on including the heart of the Nativity story in arguably the special’s most pivotal scene”. It comes to the point where  Linus walks to the center of the stage. In the stillness, Linus recites the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2, with its story of an angel appearing to trembling shepherds”. Then he picks up his “security blanket” and walks back into the wings. When the show finally aired “it was an instant success. Nearly half of American households tuned in, and the program won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award”. Surmounting the many problems in beginning the show the results seem to be that some folks “find comfort in the show’s gentle message of faith, while others embrace it in a purely secular way”. The last sentence in the article is that the “result is a lasting touchstone of innocence, hope and belief.”

I think I will have a TV dinner for dinner.

Joy

                            a day at a McDonalds indoor play area