February 9, 2025 a thought for today, Health comes before making a livelihood. Yiddish Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “h is for...” hour. I waited until all of the hands were as close to 12:00 as I could to show an hour. 

The second upload for yesterday was “food”. We seem to have been having this one as an assignment several time lately. This is a part of my frig. 

The third and last upload for yesterday is “my choice” which is one of my series of doors. This on is another set of church doors not far from my house. 

Life today. Church today was informative and given in the language of today combined with touches of that of two thousand years ago. A message carried through the centuries. A message of light. Always the kind given in a way that is refreshing, restorative and renewing of the spirit.

I didn’t stay for the donut fellowship hour this time.....I look forward to them every month but had an errand I wanted to get out of the way as early as I could. I did take a couple of minutes to shoot a few photos of the donut setup and then of the set up for today’s Sunday school lesson. This lesson was given with a bit of “reality” in that the leader was dressed in a costume of the times...that of a shepherdess along with props reminiscent of biblical times. 

The first upload for today is “frosty:” Right now the “frostiness” has take a break. This was from the  last snow fall we had a week or so ago. 

Owning a house can be expensive at times. Our AC has given its resignation. And it looks like the siding is about to do the same. Two rather expensive necessities to replace at one time are a little hard to digest. This is a time for another of those “one day at a time” methods of travel.

Being Sunday and being me there is nothing more on the agenda for today.  

Today is Superbowl Sunday.....bringing memories of the OSU game to mind so that brings memories of one of its most staunch and unwavering supporters...my son Bob. So he is much in my heart and mind today. 

The second upload for today is “my choice” which for today is another of my series of doors. This is another of the church door near my house. 

The word today is shock.  True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation. George Washington.  Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark. Henri Frederic Amiel.  The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it. Voltaire.  Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. George Washington.  Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.  Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked. Robert Browning.  

The last upload for today is “I is for....”, icicle. This one is from couple of weeks ago as was frosty the

one above.

Article: This is a sad story. I am close to seeing some of the people who deal with this sort of thing in their daily lives. I shiver and complain in parts of my house that aren’t as warm as I want. I know the discomfort of that alone. I can only taste the image of how aweful and painful it is when there is no relief. At the very least there is the Mt. Carmel Street Medicine team, their efforts are encouraging to my mind. The title: ‘Out in the elements’ and ‘frozen to the bone’, Cold weather has killed at least two homeless people in Columbus this winter’.  In the beginning of the article it is mentioned that the Mount Carmel Health’s Street Medicine team shared that last years “headcount” of folks living on the street was 2,380 but is likely closer to 5,000 suffering in the cold. Side note: it’s coincidental that this figure was mentioned at church this morning when I had just an hour before started the “letter” for my blog. It went on to say that “area doctors in January saw significant increases in instances of frostbite among patients daily, including many requiring amputations”.  There have been two deaths related to hypothermia in December and January. Many time their names aren’t even known with “no accountability for their deaths”. One of those was a woman who died of hypothermia as she slept in her car with temperatures at 22 degrees. Apparently when she was found her body temperature was 77 degrees, 98 degrees is normal. Another of the deaths in this winter is a 52 year old may who lived in a wooded area near a strip mall on Hamilton Road. He had suffered a cardiac event in the cold. The autopsy report showed “cardiovascular disease with environmental exposure”. He had been evicted from an apartment earlier in the year. The article mentioned that belongings remained in the wooded area where he died. He was a disabled veteran. He was found partially “submerged in water”. He had an ailing dog as a companion. Noone knows happened to the dog. In writing the article it was learned that “long-term exposure to cold weather can damage the heart and brain”.  Also damage occurs to muscle and nerve tissue. The article went on to say that “the psychological damage may be worse”. One of the medial personnel suppling medial assistance to these street people  said he himself was “frozen to the bone” and further related “Imagine being in that for days on end, and you don’t have any relief.” Much of whatever the homeless, sleeping in the outdoors own is wet and frozen and “you can’t get away from it.”  The story further related after speaking to some of the homeless there is a “myriad of reasons why people stay outside,,,,fear (of losing) their possessions, including tents or other shelters, will be stolen or cleared by the city while they are gone”. “A lot of people are vulnerable in shelters”. So the people who have no choice and stay outside help each other, they also wear layers. To try to say warm they will “burn anything from trash to propane to rubbing alcohol”. The article said that “only the availability of affordable housing can solve these problems”. One quote from the article is: “The answer is, we either decide that life and the ability to be sheltered is a human right, or we don’t.” Many of these people “only get a few hundred dollars a month from disability insurance or other income,.... the housing just doesn’t exist”. 

I think I will have fried bolognia and soup for dinner. 

Joy

                                  painted on windows