December 21, 2024 a thought fo today, There is no wall through which the wind cannot pass. Chinese Proverb

One of the uploads for yesterday was “Santa”. This is one of the decorations in the neighborhood.

The next upload for yesterday was “decoration”. One of the pillars in the
Sanctuary decorated with the red bow and greenery. 

The third upload for yesterday, another “decoration”. Another part of the Sanctuary in my church. 

The last up load is one of those day that I have a fourth upload for the day. It is “patterns and repeating”. I chose just a bit different than Christmas images. 

Life today. aaaah ..... Saturday!! The car saga is nearly over! I took the rental back yesterday. I love the car, a 2024 Toyota Camry, who wouldn’t. But not in the vicinity of my pocket book. I labored over what I wanted to look for. A used Toyota was at the top of my list so with Lowell’s help we made a trip to the auto mall. On the way we had breakfast, there I told Lowell about the 2018 Ford Focus my cousin had for sale. We decided on looking at that possibility. We did and then I did, buy it on Thursday. Being the scardey-cat that I am I was nervous about driving it for the first time. We took the least traveled route home, so I could avoid any heavy Christmas traffic. I decided to have a mechanic check it out for any unseen problems. Lowell made an appointment for that with a third-cousin-once-removed car maintenance owner for Monday morning. Depending on the outcome I will have it back on Tuesday or after Christmas. 

The first upload for today is “on the floor”. Sweet Pea likes to map under the table and a chair by a window near my computer.

Today Sweet Pea and I made our first errand out in the Ford to pick up the groceries at curbside pickup. She seemed to enjoy “her new ‘ride’”. So it has been officially initiated.  

As I was bringing in the last of the groceries from the back porch Tami and Andy stopped. I seem to have a quick little chore for them to do for me when ever they drop by. I had un-boxed the table-top humidifier that they had given me for my birthday but hadn’t gotten it working yet. Tami took care of that. It looks like a large mushroom and has a rain-like feel to it. I told Tami it would be perfect for a gnome to be sitting in the falling “rain”. (So after they left I ordered a tiny gnome). I wanted a couple of pictures on our new photo rails rearranged. She did that for me too.

The groceries are all put away and I had a late lunch. Now I think I will get to my series of photos a day to shoot, choose, “darkroom”, and upload. 

The second upload today is “my choice”. This is a series of “faceless portraits”.  This lady was carrying  her groceries rather than using a cart. 

The word today is raise. Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God. George Washington.  Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine. Ludwig van Beethoven.  Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it. Rene Descartes.  Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover. Joseph Addison.  Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed. Charles Caleb Colton.  What passions cannot music raise or quell? John Dryden.  Try to help others. Consult their weaknesses, relieve their maladies; strive to raise them up, and by so doing you will most effectually raise yourself up also. Joseph Barber Lightfoot.  It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity. Horace.  Divine love does not weigh down, nor carry his servant captive and enslaved to the lowest depths, but raises him, supports him and magnifies him above all liberty whatsoever. Giordano Bruno.  Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed. Joseph Addison.  But from this earth, this grave, this dust, My God shall raise me up, I trust. Walter Raleigh.  Feathers shall raise men even as they do birds towards heaven. That is by letters written with their quills. Leonardo da Vinci.  True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher. Jean Antoine Petit-Senn.  You must open a little, or rather raise on high your corolla so that the Bread of Angels may come as divine dew to strengthen you, and to give you all that is wanting to you. Therese of Lisieux.  

The last challenge upload for today is “presents”. I only have a few available for this shot. 

Article: This seems like an article that meets the time of year. There may be some interesting information to the story. The title: Santa, maybe? Why we have different names for who ‘hurries down the chimney’ on Christmas. It was written by a linguist who studies the social and historical paths. She writes that the names for Santa are many, St. Nick to Santa to Kris Kringle. The name Santa Claus does not appear in the U.S. until the late 18th century. I didn’t realize until I read this article that “it was alluded to in a mention of a religious event in the New York Gazette. She went on to mention that the New York Gazette at that time was “not unusual, given New York’s history until 1664 as a Dutch colony and the ongoing presence of Dutch settlers in that area” where the Dutch used the name “Sinter Klaas, which sometimes dialectally appeared as Sante Klaas.” St. Nick did not begin being used until the 1830s. In a magazine in 1808 it was noted that “St. Nicholas, (was) vulgarly called Santa claus”. By the 1820s “a children’s book introduced Sante Claus in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, suggesting that his modern reputation was established by then”. I also learned that his “uniform” didn’t appear until 1930 in A Coca-Cola ad. Before that it had been outfits of green and yellow to patriotic stars and stripes. The name Santa  was used before Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas came from the religious observance of the Feast Day of St. Nicholas on Dec. 6. The namesake “Saint Nicholas” came from a “highly charitable bishop of a Roman town called Myra during the fourth century. He had become the patron saint of children and was known as a man of great generosity”. Another thing about the name and the traditions came from a “legacy of the Dutch, for it was their tradition to give small gifts or sweets on St. Nicholas Day”. Another name for Santa was Kris Kringle which “came by way of the Germans who first settled in Pennsylvania and then spread out, particularly in the late 1800s”. The author of that article explained that “though, was unrelated to Saint Nicholas. Instead, it came from the German word Christkindlein, meaning “Christ child”.  And she said in the article that this name is more “related to the Christian celebration of Christ’s birth”. Eventually all of the mentioned names merged “with the celebration of Christmas in the U.S.” and became one single name, Santa Claus. She ended the article by saying that this “illustrates a wonderful melding of languages and cultures – a reminder of how differences can merge into a rich and varied part of a culture, celebrated by many”.

I didn’t have the spaghetti the other nigh so I think I will have it tonight. 

Joy

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